The Birchwood Twin(s): Of Toons and Tragedies (Part One)
by imaginarytoon1
Summary: Beatrice's curiosity gets the better of her when her list of questions about the Toon Patrol grow longer and longer. Things take another turn for Beatrice after she receives a mysterious letter.
1. Chapter 1: A Riddle

**(This is the first chapter of the first story that explains the story of the Toon Patrol. **

**But this chapter is going to be pretty short. **

**Don't worry!**

**The **_**Peaches and Powers **_**story is three-quarters of the way done!**

**I'll try to get it done so that I can work on this six-part story.**

**Enjoy!)**

**Chapter One**

**Third Person POV:**

Sitting quietly in the tower of Yen Sid was the Magic Mirror.

The flames gently burn inside the glass as the floating mask was hidden inside of the dark purple-black void.

Standing quietly by a table was Yen Sid.

He was reading a book that had drawings of hearts that belonged to the people, humans and Toons, that he knew.

Yen Sid is now checking out Beatrice's heart.

It's blue…which is very good.

As long as the drawing of the heart remains blue, Beatrice will still have enough power to stop Judge Doom.

That's also the same with Tommy. As long as the drawing of his heart remains blue, Tommy will have the same amount of power to stop Judge Doom.

….

Now's the time for Yen Sid to check the hearts of the Toon Patrol.

Yen Sid gently grabbed the lower right corner of the page and began to—

*WHOOSH*

Immediately, Yen Sid stopped what he was doing and looked at the Magic Mirror.

The flames have stopped burning inside of the glass...

Something's up.

Yen Sid slammed the book closed and ran towards the Magic Mirror as it started flickering and electricity started to spark on the frame.

After raising an eyebrow in confusion, Yen Sid shot his hands up in the air and the Magic Mirror displayed a fiery orange color on the glass before the mask was found floating in the center.

"My servant and friend, what do you see?" Yen Sid asked. "Please reveal your vision or riddle to me!"

Lights and colors flickered rapidly and a strong wind began to blow.

"_A stranger leaves six notes to Beatrice,_

_ In a dark room, she is going to exhume six secrets." _The Magic Mirror said boldly.

"_In each secret, there are moments of tragedy._

_ Tears will flow,_

_ Anger will grow,_

_ Beatrice will understand the meaning in the secrets immediately."_

The wind suddenly stopped blowing and the lights and colors immediately stopped flickering and sparking. The floating mask even disappeared after everything just stopped.

Yen Sid looked at the Magic Mirror in confusion.

Despite of being a wise wizard, there were some things that make Yen Sid feel confused.

Several questions ran around in his mind:

Who is the stranger?

Will the stranger reveal him/herself to Beatrice after leaving the notes?

Is the stranger a friend or a foe?

What kind of notes will the stranger leave to Beatrice?

As soon as Beatrice discovers the secrets, what will they reveal during the 'moments of tragedy'?

….What if Judge Doom is attempting to trick Beatrice?


	2. Chapter 2: Arriving at Cressida's House

**Chapter Two**

***5:35:23 pm***

**Beatrice:**

It is finally summer break.

It has been a week and three days since the last day of school and the Zelkova Summer Departure Show.

Today is the day when Cressida is turning eighteen.

Today is also the day when Tommy and I are going to Cressida's house and hang out with Cressida as we celebrate her eighteenth birthday.

Right now is the time when I'm getting everything ready as I spend some of my free time in my room.

Since Cressida's foster parents are planning to go to a party with their friends tonight, Cressida thought (with her foster parents' permission) that tonight would be a great time to celebrate her birthday.

All that Tommy, Cressida, and I are going to do today is swim in Cressida's backyard pool, hang out, and watch a movie.

Then, pretty much after that, Tommy and I are going to leave and meet up with Cressida some other time.

Tommy is currently wandering around in the Brazoria Shopping Center, running some errands and getting a present for Cressida.

I am almost done with Cressida's present.

Her present is a painting of three of Cressida's favorite characters from some Tim Burton movies, Edward Scissorhands, the Cheshire Cat, and Sally from _The Nightmare Before Christmas._

"Just a little bit more black paint…" I said as I dipped my paintbrush in some black paint. "…and I will be done. Then, I will get dressed the swimsuit that I bought three days ago…"

I stroked some black paint on the painting's background, set it down on a paper towel, and said, "…and I am done!"

Yeah, three days ago (after Cressida invited me and Tommy to her house), I had to go buy a new swimsuit because I've grown out of my old one. I found a swimsuit that I thought it looked nice when I was at a swimwear and water sports store. After bringing it home, I went to my room and tried on the swimsuit. I looked at myself in my bathroom mirror while wearing the swimsuit and I thought that even though it fits, a thought of unintentionally scaring Cressida because of how bony I look with a one-piece swimsuit came to me and I began to feel very worried.

Scaring Cressida is the last thing that I want to happen once I get to her house and I would regret coming to Cressida's house if my bony appearance made Cressida freak out.

What does my swimsuit look like?

The swimsuit was a one-piece with a dark blue skirt attached and it had dark blue and white stripes running horizontally across the top. My swimsuit also had a thin yellow belt around the mid-chest area and yellow and white straps.

I just hope that—

*hmmm*. *hmmm*.

Oh! Tommy's calling me right now.

After picking up my phone and pressing the green button on the screen, I said,

"Hello?"

"_Hey, Beatrice, I got Cressida's present."_ Tommy replied.

"What did you get for Cressida?"

"_I got her some dark colored nail polish and a very rare Tim Burton art book."_

"Wow, Tommy, those are really good choices!"

"_Are you done with the present that you're giving to Cressida?"_

"It needs to dry for a few minutes. The painting will be dry by the time it's time to go to Cressida's house."

"_All right."_

After clearing my throat, I asked Tommy,

"Are you still in town?"

"_Yeah, I'm still in town. I'm about to drive home after I get myself a drink from 365 Summer. Do you want a drink?"_ Tommy replied.

"No, I'm good."

"_Okay. I'll be back in between fifteen and twenty minutes, depending on traffic and how long the line is at 365 Summer."_

I chuckled.

"All right, Tommy." I said. "See you later."

"_See you later."_ Tommy replied.

"Bye."

"_Bye."_

I sighed as I hung up.

"Okay." I said. "Time to put on my swimsuit."

…..

***6:10:13 pm***

"It's going to be all right, Beatrice." Tommy said as we walked to Cressida's house. "You're Cressida's best friend and there's no way that she's going to freak out when she sees your body."

Yeah, Tommy and I are talking about me not being afraid to swim once we get to Cressida's house.

"Are you sure or positive about this?" I asked with doubt in my voice.

"I'm sure, Beatrice." Tommy replied. "You're Cressida's best friend and there's no way that Cressida is going to freak out."

I sighed.

"That's what a lot of people say to me." I said. "They say that they will not freak out and what happens? They stare at me in shock and freak out. How people react after seeing my bony body became one of my many reasons why I don't go to parties with other people in our age group."

"Oh, come on, Beatrice, just relax." Tommy replied. "This is our summer break and it's our time to relax. We'll just walk into Cressida's house, hang out with Cressida, and enjoy our time. Just relax and try to not swim with your oversized T-shirt and shorts over your swimsuit."

I glanced at Tommy and I sighed.

"Okay." I said with reluctance. "I'll try."

…..

I took another deep breath as Tommy and I walked up to the front door of Cressida's house.

I reached for the doorbell button and I pressed it.

*DIN DOHN*

A few seconds later, I heard…Penny calling from the inside of the house,

"Come in!"

Tommy and I exchanged glances and walked into the house.

After closing the front door, I heard Cressida exclaim,

"Hey, Beatrice! Hey, Tommy!"

"What's up, Cressida?" I said as I set the painting (now carefully wrapped with brown grocery bag wrapping paper) under the counter.

"I can't believe that I'm finally eighteen! This is so exciting!"

"I can't wait until I'm eighteen." Penny said as she tied her hair back into a ponytail. "I'm tired of being nine years old."

"I know that it'll take a long time," Tommy replied, "but don't worry. Time will fly by and you'll be eighteen before you know it."

"Thank you, Tommy."

"So is it just the four of us celebrating your eighteenth birthday or are more people coming over?" I asked Cressida.

"It's you, me, Tommy, Penny, and the Toon Patrol." Cressida replied.

I gasped in shock in my head.

"Greasy, Wheezy, Stupid, Psycho, and Smarty will be here in a few minutes." Cressida continued. "Can you help me with one thing?"

I nodded and replied,

"Sure."

"Come with me to the backyard."

I followed Cressida.

As soon as I stepped out of the house and into the backyard, my eyes widened.

The green grass was neatly trimmed and the desert cactus and grass bed surrounding the swimming pool gave it a nice desert-y touch without overdoing anything.

The swimming pool looks really nice, too. It's slightly shaped like a kidney and the water's crystal clear. In fact, the water is so clear that—

I stop myself.

Cressida wants me to help her with something and I need to stay focused.

I went back to following Cressida and I watched her walk up to a giant rectangular box and opening it up.

Then, Cressida reached in and pulled out…six candles.

"Are those the kind of candles that repel mosquitos?" I asked.

"Yeah." Cressida replied as she handed me three of the six candles. "I kind of had a feeling about mosquitos flying around the backyard when the night hours come."

"Wise choice."

"You can set those three candles over there, just kind of close to the potted cactus."

"Okay."

As I walked to where Cressida wanted me to place the candles, I thought about what she said earlier about Greasy, Wheezy, Psycho, Stupid, and Smarty coming over.

Oh, man, can this evening make me feel even more insecure about my bony body?

What if the Toon Patrol looked at me the whole time after they see my bony body? What if one of the five members gave me a very insulting remark or say things like 'Eat a hamburger', 'Do you eat anything', or 'You look like a toothpick'?

MY GOSH.

If any of the Toon Patrol members say any of those things, I'm not going to another party again.

I mean, I'm getting along with Greasy, Wheezy, Psycho, Stupid, and Smarty but I know that Smarty, Greasy, and Wheezy are pretty quick to speak their minds when they see something that displeases them. I also have a feeling that Psycho and Stupid might freak out after seeing me in my swimsuit.

_Just relax and try to not swim with your oversized T-shirt and shorts over your swimsuit_. I heard Tommy say in my head. _This is our summer break and it's our time to relax_.

*sigh*

Tommy's right.

I should relax.

I have to try to not be really conservative or insecure with my body.

I don't know why I'm acting so crazy.

Maybe it's stress.

Or anxiety.

Or the fact I'm worrying about how other people are going to react if they saw me with a swimsuit on and possibly freaking out at the sight of my extremely bony body.

Or maybe it's because I haven't been to a friend's party since Kaitlyn killed herself two weeks after turning thirteen and I feel like coming to a person's house during their birthday is making me nervous and unsure about some things.

Hmm, maybe I should relax…or I can come with a plan that can help me stay calm and find a way to swim without anyone seeing me in my swimsuit and my bony body.

I smiled as I placed the candles down to where Cressida wanted to put the candles down.

Yeah, I should do that.

I should come up with a way to get into the pool without anyone seeing me in my swimsuit and my bony body.

But what should I do?

You know what? I'm going to—

"Here are some matches, Beatrice." Cressida said, surprising me and interrupting my thoughts while handing me a box of matches.

"Thank you." I replied as I took the box.

I slid the box open and took out a couple of matches.

As I tried to light the matches, Cressida asked,

"What's on your mind right now?"

I looked at her.

"Just thinking about how long it's been since I've been invited to a birthday party." I replied carefully.

"Really?" Cressida asked. "How long has it been since you've been invited to a party?"

"The last party that I've been invited to was when I was thirteen."

"Wow, so it's been a while for you."

"Yeah, I guess you can say that. I just kind of wanted to tell you before we start the party."

"Okay."

"I might ask you about the things that are going to happen so that I'll be familiar with parties and birthdays. I'm sorry if I made this a little awkward, Cressida."

"It's okay, Beatrice. You're my best friend and I'll be glad to help."

I smiled.

"Thank you, Cressida." I said.

_All right. _I thought. _Maybe I can stay a little longer…even though Tommy and I just arrived here a couple of minutes ago._

Then, after swiping a match on the side of the box, the tip of the match quickly lit up with fire and I brought the burning end to the wick of one of the candles.

When the wick started burning, I moved on to the next candle.

After lighting that candle, I moved on to the last candle before the flame was getting too close to my fingers.

"Okay." I said putting out the fire on the match. "Got the candles."

"Thank you, Beatrice." Cressida replied.

"No problem at all."

"Cressida, the Toon Patrol's here!" Penny called out from the house.

"Okay, tell them that I'm out here!" Cressida replied.

_Oh, no, how am I supposed to get into the pool without anybody seeing me?! _I thought.

"Oh, great, there's a frog in the deep end of the pool." Cressida said.

I looked at her.

"A frog?" I asked.

"Yeah, a frog." Cressida said. "I need to get it out or it'll die in the pool. You can go ahead and swim."

"Are you sure that I'm not going to be in your way while you try to get the frog out of the pool?"

"No, it's okay."

"Okay."

All right, this is perfect!

After taking some brief observations, I think that I can take my shirt and shorts off and slip into the pool at a quick speed without anybody noticing or watching me.

But I better take my shirt and shorts off right now without stalling.

Greasy and the others will be coming out any second and the last thing that I want is Greasy staring at me for a long period of time.

I carefully watched Cressida and the door.

I don't see anyone coming out…aaaand it looks like Cressida is extremely occupied with getting something to get the frog out of the pool.

I quickly took my shirt and shorts off and placed them beside me.

I looked at the door again.

Good.

No one is about to coming out.

Now I'm going to take off my glasses and slip into the pool.

…Taking off my glasses…looking at Cressida…who is still looking for something to scoop the frog out of the pool…and—

Oh, no!

Someone's turning the knob!

I have to get into the pool right now!

Without hesitation, I sat down and pushed myself into the pool, sinking down to the bottom as I listened to the sounds of my small splash and tiny bubbles floating up to the surface.

OH MY GOSH! THE WATER IS SO COLD!

*sigh*

But I don't care!

I have to make sure—

Oh, great! The skirt that's attached on to my swimsuit is acting like Marilyn Monroe's dress when Marilyn stood on a subway grate!

…And now the bottom hem of my swimsuit skirt is up to my chin!

I'm going to tuck the skirt in a little bit…while I'm under the water…with my glasses still on my face.

Oh, forget it.

My skirt will have to wait.

I have to take my glasses off.

I am now swimming up to the surface.

…Okay, now my head is out of the water.

After taking deep breath, I took my glasses off and placed them on my shirt and shorts.

Then, I heard three splashes.

I turned around and I squinted.

…It looks like Tommy…Wheezy…and Greasy are now in the pool.

Well, at least my bony body's under the water.

As long as I keep the rest of my bony body under the water, I'll be okay and I won't—

"Beatrice."

I turned around and saw Cressida standing close to the edge of the pool with a long and skinny blue pole in her hands.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"The attachment for this net just broke off and it's coming towards the frog." Cressida replied. "Can you get it for me? I don't have a swimsuit on yet."

Oh, frog catching and net retrieving in a swimming pool.

This evening just got interesting.

"Sure, Cressida, and I can also get that frog if that's okay." I said.

"That's fine with me." Cressida replied.

Then, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and went under the water.

The cold water shocked me for a brief second but I quickly shook it off and opened my eyes.

Despite of how the pool water was stinging my eyes a little bit, I swam to the bottom of the pool after seeing a white cylindrical shape.

Oh, that's the attachment that Cressida was talking about and it's close to something that looked like a leaf.

Wait a minute.

That's a frog!

I'm going after it right now…right after I get the attachment and give it back to Cressida.


	3. Chapter 3: Frogs, Planes, and Pizza

**Chapter Three**

**Tommy:**

I'm so proud of Beatrice.

I'm so glad that she's swimming in the pool instead of sitting on the edge with only her feet in the water.

Maybe once the party's over—

Wait a minute.

Why is Greasy swimming towards Beatrice…and why is she not noticing him?

Oh, no.

I have a feeling that Greasy's going to surprise Beatrice.

Oh, I hope that he's not going to do that because Beatrice does NOT like that and she can get really ticked.

…..

**Beatrice:**

_All right, you little frog. _I thought as I carefully swam towards it for the third time. _Stay still and I will get you out of this pool._

I carefully reached for the frog.

It looks like it's about to swim away.

…I'm almost got the frog.

…I GOT IT!

"HA HA!" I exclaimed under the water.

Then, I realized that I needed air and I quickly began to swim up to the surface with the frog in my right hand.

After my head came out of the water, I took a deep breath.

"Hey, Cressida, I got the frog!" I exclaimed.

"Thank you, Beatrice!" Cressida replied.

Then, I looked at the frog.

"As for you, I'm setting you free." I said and carefully patted the frog on its head with my left index finger.

I chuckled.

Then, I heard something making a small splash, making me stop chuckling.

I turned around and I frowned in confusion after seeing there was no one behind me.

_If more frogs jump into the pool, let's just say that I catch frogs all night._ I thought.

Then, I began to smell something really bizarre.

It's…it's…it's not the smell of hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, or any other kind of typical birthday party food.

I think I smell…cologne?

That's really weird.

Who could be wearing a type of cologne with an extremely strong smell in this party?

Certainly not Tommy.

I know because his skin is very sensitive and he'll have to experience a quick round of coming and going headaches.

Could it be—?

"_Hola, cariño."_

I yelped…and accidentally released the frog.

I turned around and I saw…Greasy standing behind while laughing.

I even began to smell cologne.

_So that's where it was coming from! _I thought.

"You scared the living daylights out of me!" I exclaimed as I tried to catch my breath.

Greasy laughed a little more before he replied,

"_Lo siento, _Beatrice. I just wanted to see how you were doing."

I blinked twice and said,

"I'm doing fine and I had a frog in my hands."

"Really?" Greasy asked. "You were holding a frog?"

"I _WAS _holding a frog."

"Where is it?"

"It leaped back in to the water and it's probably swimming around while trying to avoid getting noticed. I'll have to catch the frog again."

"Do you want me to help?"

I looked at Greasy.

"Yeah, you can help…since you have better eyesight than I do." I said.

"You can't see very well under the water?" Greasy asked.

"No."

"I will be glad to help."

"Thank you, Greasy."

…..

**Tommy:**

"Okay, Penny, let's see if the money that your foster parents gave you is enough to buy four boxes of pizza." I said as I turned on my phone's calculator.

"Let's see." Penny said as she unfolded a thin wad of dollar bills. "They gave us ten…fifteen…twenty…thirty-five…and forty two dollars."

I nodded and looked at the menu of Casa Pizza (a cheap but very popular pizza restaurant in Houston) that Penny printed out a couple of minutes ago.

If a person wanted to have a cheese pizza, Casa Pizza can give one away for five dollars and twenty-five cents.

If a person wanted to have a pizza with one or more kinds of meat, Casa Pizza can give one away for five dollars and twenty-nine cents.

If a person wanted to have a pizza with just vegetables, Casa Pizza can give one away for four dollars and twenty-five cents.

But what I'm looking for on the menu is a section that allows a certain person to order some—

"Oh, here we are." I said to myself.

…..

**Beatrice:**

"Just look down at your right foot, Beatrice." Greasy said. "I think that's the frog we're after."

I looked down carefully.

"I see it." I replied. "I'm going after the frog."

I took a deep breath and dove down.

After opening my eyes, I reached for the frog and I hoped that it wouldn't swim away from me.

Suddenly, I heard a loud splash.

I looked up and I saw…Psycho sinking down to the bottom.

My eyes widened and I quickly grabbed the frog.

_Got it! _I thought.

Then, I quickly saw Psycho doggy paddle in the water at an incredible speed, uneven pattern, and with fast-moving feet…which gave me an indication that I had to get out of his way or I was going to get kicked.

I turned around and quickly used my feet to swim away.

In the process of swimming away from Psycho, I carefully closed my hand without squishing the frog.

My hair's getting in my face, my heart is pounding slowly but loudly in my chest and I feel like my lungs are about to burst.

I have to get up to the surface and catch my breath.

…..

**Tommy:**

"…Thank you." I said to the person from Casa Pizza on the phone.

"_My pleasure." _The person said.

Immediately after saying that, I hung up.

"What did they say?" Penny asked.

"The pizza will be delivered in thirty minutes." I replied. "The cost for the pizza is twenty nine dollars and forty-five cents."

"Sweet."

"Let's tell Cressida about the pizza and we'll figure out who's going to watch out for the pizza delivery person."

"Good idea."

…..

**Beatrice:**

"You got the frog?" Greasy asked after my head was out of the water.

I took a deep breath and replied,

"Yep, I got him."

"May I see the frog?" Greasy asked.

"I'll show you the frog if we get out of the water. I don't want to chase after the frog again if I show you in the water."

…..

**Third Person POV:**

Wheezy stared into space in thought as he was burning three cigarettes in his mouth.

He got out of the pool a couple of minutes ago after wanting to talk to Cressida a little bit and deciding to supervise Psycho and Stupid when they jumped into the pool.

But since Tommy was talking to Cressida about something, Wheezy knew that he had to wait until it was the right time to talk to her.

As he waited, thoughts about Cressida started to flood into his mind.

Wheezy's not thinking about the time when he talked to Cressida the first time.

He's thinking about how his relationship with Cressida had slowly evolved into a boyfriend-girlfriend—

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud rumbling sound that was coming from the sky.

Wheezy blew out a cloud of smoke and looked up at the sky.

As his eyes scanned the sky and looked for the thing that was making that rumbling sound.

"Hmm." Wheezy mumbled as he frowned. "Where is that noise coming from?"

Then, his frown softened a little bit after the noise was slowly…becoming very familiar to him.

He quickly inhaled and exhaled some smoke from his burning cigarettes.

Immediately after blowing out the smoke, Wheezy spotted the thing that was making the loud rumbling noise.

It looked really small because of how far and high it was in the sky and the noise that the thing made continued to grow louder and louder.

It was an airplane.

Wheezy's frown was replaced with a look of pure fear and he clenched his teeth.

He began to hear voices and more sounds in his head that were anything but good and pleasant.

"_JOHNATHAN, WATCH OUT FOR THE ENEMY!"_

_ "THERE'S TOO MANY OF 'EM! THERE'S NO ESCAPE!"_

_ *BANG-BANG-BANG*! *BANG-BANG-BANG*!_

_ …_

_ *BOOM*!_

_ …_

_ "MAYDAY, MADAY, MAYDAY! WE'VE BEEN HIT! THE _SHAMROCK_'S BEEN HIT! I REPEAT, THE _SHAMROCK_'S BEEN HIT!"_

_ …_

_ "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

_ …_

_ "JOHNATHAN! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

Wheezy slammed his hands onto his ears, covering them, as if the voices and sounds were going to stop playing in his head if he did that.

Why, just why did an airplane had to fly in the sky when all he wanted to do was relax and try to have a little bit of fun?

"Wheezy? Wheezy, are you-are you okay?"

Immediately, Wheezy gasped and turned his head sharply to his right.

Cressida was looking at him…and she looks very worried.

"Are you okay, Wheezy?" She asked.

"I'm fine." Wheezy replied. "I was thinking, that's all."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Wheezy glanced at Psycho, Stupid, and Smarty, who were looking and watching with interest and curiosity.

Then, he looked at Cressida.

"Maybe later." He said to her.

…..

***TWENTY EIGHT MINUTES LATER***

**Beatrice:**

"There's no need for you to be nervous, Beatrice." Greasy said as he placed his hand on my shoulder. "You'll grow to like your swimsuit and I think it looks really nice on you."

I felt my face burning, giving me an indication that I was blushing.

Yeah, Greasy's talking to me about my bony body.

A couple of seconds after I told Greasy that I was going to show him the frog, I had to tell him that he had to look away as soon as I get out of the pool. Well, Greasy did what I told him after I got out of the pool and I wrapped a towel around my body, making sure that it covered my torso area and my legs, but after I opened my hands (that I can show Greasy the frog), the towel unwrapped by itself and slid down to my feet. To be honest with you, I felt like running away from Greasy in embarrassment but I couldn't. I just stood in front of Greasy with a little frog in my hands with look of shock on my face.

After I started stuttering to Greasy about how he shouldn't look at me because I look underfed, he stopped me and talked to me about how much he likes me despite of my body.

Greasy also revealed to me that he, too, felt really ridiculous at first when he tried on the swimwear that he's wearing right now (baggy black swim trunks that have a white belt around them and a black tank top) but eventually, he grew to like them a little bit.

Before I get off topic, I'm going to tell you what I'm about to do right now.

I looked at Greasy.

"Are you all right?" He asked.

"Yeah." I replied. "I'm all right now."

"If all of you are hungry, dry off and come on in!" Cressida suddenly announced. "There are towels in this box! Take one and use one to dry off! Don't come in to the house if you're still wet!"

"Oh, boy!" Psycho exclaimed and leaped out of the pool.

"Come on, Stupid, it's time to eat." Smarty said.

"Duh, okay!" Stupid replied.

I looked at Greasy.

"Do you want to go inside and eat some pizza?" I asked.

"_Si." _He replied.

***TIME SKIP***

***TWO AND A HALF MINUTES LATER***

Greasy (who is now wearing his usual green suit, coat, pants, and hat with black and white spectator shoes) and I (now wearing my shirt and shorts over my swimsuit) sat down on Cressida's living room couch with our plates of pizza in our hands.

I had a slice of pizza with black olives, mushrooms, and green bell peppers and Greasy had a slice of pizza with pepperoni and sausage.

I carefully peeled the melted cheese off the pizza and brought it up to my mouth.

Hey, that's the way I eat my pizza. I like to peel the cheese off and eat it first. Why? Because the cheese is the first and second best part of pizza.

"What are you doing?" Smarty asked, surprising me.

"Eating the best part of this slice of pizza." I replied.

Smarty gave me a look of confusion.

"The cheese is the best part of the pizza and I like…Oh, forget it."

I opened my mouth and carefully bit on the hot melted cheese.

Oh, man, it's a little hot!

Greasy chuckled as I dropped the cheese back on to my plate.

"Is it hot?" He asked.

After exhaling sharply and inhaling a lot of air to cool my mouth, I replied,

"Yeah. I might want to wait a little bit."

Smarty, Psycho, and Stupid began to laugh.

I rolled my eyes.

"Very funny, you guys." I said.

"Of course we are." Smarty replied.

Psycho giggled like crazy as Stupid laughed and banged his fist on the table.

…..

**Third Person POV:**

Wheezy stared out into space again as he stood under the shade of Cressida's back porch and smoked on a single cigarette.

He was trying to calm himself down after what had happened earlier with the airplane.

He was trying to calm down by doing one of the two things that he would do if he had to experience fear or stress: Smoke and stare.

The Two S's.

"Wheezy?"

Immediately, Wheezy brought himself back to reality after hearing someone saying his name and looked back.

Oh, it's Cressida.

"Are you okay, Wheezy?" Cressida asked as she walked slowly towards him.

After blowing out a cloud of smoke, Wheezy replied in a raspy voice,

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Well—*cough, cough, cough*!—, I'm calming down right now."

"Calming down? Are you calming yourself down after whatever made you freak out?"

"Yeah."

Cressida opened her mouth to say something but immediately stopped herself.

She had a feeling that she might make Wheezy feel even more upset if she asked him why he was freaking out.

Wheezy inhaled and exhaled a cloud of smoke and said,

"I know what you're trying to do. *cough*! You want to ask me why—*cough*! *COUGH*!—I was acting crazy a few minutes ago."

"Well, uh—" Cressida began.

"It's all right. You can ask me. Other than Smarty, Greasy—*cough, cough, cough, cough*!—, Psycho, and Stupid, no one knows this little secret that I've been keeping for a while. If you're going to ask me why, then you're going to be the first human to know."

Cressida briefly paused and took a deep breath.

"Okay." She said. "Why were you freaking out a few minutes ago?"

"I freaked out because there was an airplane in the sky." Wheezy replied.

Cressida blinked twice and frowned in confusion.

"An airplane?" She asked.

"I have…a dreadful fear of airplanes." Wheezy replied. "Every time—*cough, cough*!—I hear or see an airplane flying in the sky, I get really scared and act really strange."

"Are you afraid of airplanes because of traumatizing experience that happened in your life?"

Wheezy inhaled and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

After doing that, he replied,

"I rather not talk about it. Brings back terrible memories."

Cressida nodded.

"I understand." She said.

…..

***TIME SKIP***

***9:15:23 pm***

**Beatrice:**

With tired, droopy eyes, I watch Cressida insert a DVD in the DVD player.

What movie?

_Edward Scissorhands._

(I don't have a problem with that movie. If you ask me, I think that _Edward Scissorhands _is a really great movie and it's something that's worth-watching.)

I placed my chin on my right hand as I rested my right elbow on the arm of couch as I waited patiently.

"Comfortable?" Greasy asked me.

I nodded.

"That's good." He said.

I'm so tired.

I really want to see the movie but…I feel tired and want to sleep.

…I'm going to try to see the beginning of the movie and try to resist…

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…


	4. A Moment of Curiosity and Randomness

**Chapter Four**

**Beatrice:**

_I'm walking down a dim-lit hallway._

_ The sources of light are coming from the flames that are burning on torches and giant candles._

_ The walls are made with stone but the floor that I'm walking on is made out of marble._

_ I must be walking down this hallway for a reason._

_ I don't know what my reason is but I'm still going to walk down the hallway until I figure out my reason and find a way to get out._

_ Now I'm beginning to notice something about the candles and torches that are behind me._

_ The flames are going out by themselves._

_ That's really odd._

_ There are no windows in this hallway and so far, I haven't seen any air-conditioning vents and that tells me that something else is making those flames go out by themselves._

_ I have a feeling that somebody is responsible for making me think that the flames are going out by themselves._

_ Could it be a security guard? A ninja? How about—?_

_ Now, I'm hearing…music._

_ Slow guitar music._

_ It sounds like…an instrumental version of…Julie London's _Cry Me A River.

_I think that's right but I'm not entirely sure._

_ Now the flames are glowing a brighter glow…and I can see a semi-circular wooden door with giant rustic door knockers._

_ The hallway behind me is now really dark and I can't see thing in the pitch black abyss._

_ That's not the only problem._

_ There are three candles and two torches left and it's getting a little hard for me to see._

_ Okay, something is telling me to walk to the door…and I'm doing that right now._

_ As I walked closer and closer to the door, the music grew louder and louder._

_ I'm tempted to turn around and go back to where I started._

_ I know that I can't enter a room if there's a stranger in there._

_ If I walk into a room and there's a stranger, then I'm asking for trouble and consequences._

_ Unfortunately, since I've walked too far from where I started, the hallway's too dark for me to see and there's probably no way that the other candles and torches are going to light up again to guide me back to my starting point._

_ I sighed._

_ "Maybe the only way for the candles and torches to light up again is open up the door, walk into the room, find out what's in the room, and leave." I said to myself. "Yeah, that might work."_

_ As soon as I approached the door, I reached for the door knocker, grabbed it, and pulled it upward a little bit._

_ Then, I carefully knocked on the door with the door knocker._

_ A few seconds later, a voice from behind the door said,_

_ "Come in."_

_ I blinked twice in confusion._

_ That voice sounded familiar._

_ Could it be…?_

_ Might as well find out right now._

_ I pulled on the door knocker and the door opened up with a gentle smooth swing._

_ A gust of cold escaped from behind the door and it blew out the fire from the remaining candles and torches._

_ Thankfully, there was light in the room that was hidden behind the door._

_ I took a deep breath and walked into the room as I closed the door behind me._

_ My eyes widened in awe and curiosity._

_ The room that I just walked in to had walls that were grayish-blue color and the ceiling was white._

_ The floor was made of black shiny marble and it was so shiny that I can kind of see my reflection._

_ "Whoa." I whispered._

_ As I looked at the several pictures and objects that were scattered around the room and either in glass display boxes or lying on the floor, my eyes widened in recognition after realizing that the pictures and objects were parts of my past._

_ What kind of pictures?_

_ Well, the pictures that I'm seeing right now are pictures of me when I was a little kid, vacation days with Dad and Tommy, and days when I had to dance after dance practice._

_ What kind of objects?_

_ Overalls that I wore when I was six, shoes that I've worn in the past, my grandfather's mayonnaise jar full of pennies and quarters, and New York souvenir spoon that Tommy gave me when he went to New York for a school trip._

_ Could this room that I'm in be room of my memories?_

_ It's a possibility._

_ But I heard a voice telling me to come in to this room a couple of minutes ago…and that tells me that I'm not the only one in here._

_ I'm going to look for that person—_

...

I slowly came to my senses when I heard—

"Beatrice. Beatrice. Wake up, _dormilón._"

—Greasy.

Even with my eyes closed, I blinked.

As I did that, I groaned in exhaustion.

"What time is it?" I asked sleepily.

"It's a little after eleven o'clock." Greasy replied.

"Eleven o'clock? Wow, I must be really tired."

"And you slept through the whole movie."

"I did?"

Greasy nodded.

"Nah, I don't have to worry about that." I shrugged. "I've seen the movie several times…so I don't have to worry about the parts that I've missed."

"That's good." Greasy said.

My attention was caught by something green covering my body like a blanket.

It's Greasy's coat.

And I specifically remember resting my chin on my hand, not lying down on Cressida's couch with Greasy's coat covering my body.

"It was getting really cold in this room." Greasy explained. "I didn't want you to get cold so I thought of letting you borrow my coat for a little bit."

"You didn't have to do that but…thank you." I replied as I sat up and handed Greasy his coat.

After Greasy grabbed his coat, I rubbed my eyes and looked around the living room.

It's practically empty.

Psycho, Stupid, Wheezy, Smarty, Tommy, Cressida, and Penny were in this room and…now it's just me and Greasy.

"Where did everybody go?" I asked.

"Wheezy, Stupid, Psycho, and Smarty left," Greasy replied. "Penny's sleeping in her bedroom, Tommy's going to the bathroom, and Cressida is putting the movie away."

I nodded.

"How did you like the movie?" I asked.

"_Sinceramente_, it was amazing and unusual." Greasy said as he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out…a container of hair grease and a comb. "I liked the part when the guy with the scissor hands was sculpting that ice statue and the girl was dancing under the flakes of ice."

"That's a really famous scene."

"There was one part that I didn't understand."

"What was it?"

As Greasy started to add a lot of hair grease on his hair, he explained,

"There was this part when an old man was about to give the guy with scissor hands regular human hands and as he let the scissor hands guy look at the regular hands, the old man just collapsed and never got back on his feet. What happened to the old man? He didn't look sick or anything."

"The old man, also known as 'The Inventor', had passed away." I replied as Greasy rubbed the hair grease in his hair and started combing it, "According to a person who wrote a review about the movie, The Inventor died because he was really old, had a heart attack and he didn't get any help, mainly because Edward, the guy with the scissor hands, didn't know what was going on and had no idea how to help a heart attack victim."

"That makes sense."

"And what I'm about to say next may sound but I'm going to say it anyway. Do you realize how much grease that you're putting in your hair? You just added a lot of grease in your hair."

Greasy chuckled.

"They don't call me 'Greasy' for nothing, _cariño_." He replied. "I'm called 'Greasy' for a reason and maybe one reason only. You weren't being rude and you're not the only person telling me about how much grease I put in my hair."

_'A reason and maybe one reason only'?_ I thought. _I'm getting really curious at the 'maybe' part and when Greasy says that I'm not the only person making a statement about the excess amount of grease in his hair._

Then, I heard somebody walk into the living room.

Oh, it's Tommy.

"Oh, you're awake." Tommy said.

"Well, sort of." I replied as I stretched a little bit. "I feel like I'm going to fall right back asleep."

"Try to stay awake for a few more minutes, Beatrice. We have to walk back home in a couple of minutes."

I yawned.

"I'll try." I said.

…..

***TIME SKIP***

"Good night, Daddy." I said after kissing my dad on the cheek.

"Good night, Dad." Tommy said before walking towards our bedroom hallway.

"Good night, you two." Dad replied as he was getting off the couch. "See you in the morning."

_It's so nice to have Dad here. _I thought as I smiled and walked to my bedroom.

I bet you're wondering about how things are going so far now that my dad is officially staying with me and Tommy.

Well, things are going good so far.

Dad is still in the writing books business but he's on a temporary hiatus due to suffering from a case of writer's block and he's having trouble coming up with ideas.

"It's only for a little while." Dad said one day. "I need some time to be inspired."

Tommy and I have been getting letters from Mom.

What kind of letters?

Friendly and supportive letters for Tommy and very mean letters for me.

So far, from what I've heard from Tommy's letters, Mom has refused to speak to anyone about why she hates me and has been going to solitary confinement six times after unleashing a fit of violent fury and for punching a hole in a wall.

From my letters, Mom has been saying that I'm the one who's making her behave very badly and that I was going to be sorry when she comes home after being released.

Whenever I have the opportunity to write back, I would write nice things to Mom like: "I forgive you", "Don't worry, things are going to get better for you in time"…and stuff like that.

Tommy would write stuff like: "Stop blaming everything on Beatrice", "I want you to behave and accept the help that the people at the institution and rehab center are giving you"…and other stuff that I promised myself to not repeat.

So…yeah.

That's just about it.

I am now currently lying down on my bed in my dark room while staring at my spinning bedroom fan.

The fast spinning blades are hypnotizing me.

My eyelids are growing very, very, very heavy.

As the need to sleep is taking over me, questions are running around in my head.

Not questions about life.

Questions about the Toon Patrol.

Are there more reasons why Greasy's called 'Greasy'?

Did Smarty always speak with malapropisms before Tommy and I met him?

Was Stupid always stupid and did he use to play baseball?

Was Wheezy drawn with blue fur or was there another cause?

Was Psycho always hyper?

If the spirals in Psycho's eyes stopped spinning, is Psycho going to act like Smarty, Greasy, and Wheezy?

Why does Smarty not wear pants with his zoot suit?

Zzzz…

Does…Greasy have a reason why he sometimes…acts…protective and does…he really and truly love me?

Zzzz…

…..

—_who allowed me to come into this room of memories._

_*gasp*._

_Is that…a memory of me meeting Kaitlyn for the first time?_

_**Hi! **__Kindergarten-Kaitlyn exclaimed happily at Kindergarten-Me. __**What is your name?**_

_Kindergarten-Me replies nervously. __**Beatrice Birchwood.**_

_Kindergarten-Kaitlyn giggled._

'_**Beatrice', huh? Pretty name. **__She said._

_Kindergarten-Me smiled and replies, __**Thank you.**_

_**Why are you sitting here by yourself, Beatrice?**_

_**The other kids don't like me.**_

_**Why?**_

_Kindergarten-Me sighed._

_**They think that I'm the teacher's pet but I'm not. **__Kindergarten-Me said.___

_**I don't think that you're a teacher's pet.**__ Kindergarten-Kaitlyn replied. __**I think that you're nice.**_

_**Do you think so?**_

_**Yep! Do you want to play with me during recess?**_

_Kindergarten-Me's eyes widened with surprise._

_**You want me to play with you? **__Kindergarten-Me asked._

_**Yeah. **__Kindergarten-Kaitlyn replied. __**My mommy says that it's not right for little girls to be lonely and I think that we're going to be great friends.**_

_**Do you really think so?**_

_**Yes, Beatrice. Come play hopscotch with me during recess.**_

_**Okay. I will.**_

_My eyes are tearing up right now._

_Seeing that—_

_Oh, the music just changed._

_I'm now hearing another instrumental version of a song that I happen to know._

_It's an instrumental version of _Butterflies_ and it's by Michael Jackson._

_Where is this music coming from?_

_Do I happen to have a radio in this room of memories or am I reading my own thoughts about the songs that I like to listen to?_

"_Psst!"_

_I gasped in surprise and suddenly start to look around for the person who just grabbed my attention._

"_Hey, you just passed me." The voice said._

_Now I know who is talking to me!_

"_Greasy, is that you?" I called out in my normal volume._

"_Step back five steps and look to your left." I heard Greasy replying to me._

"_Ooookay."_

_Stepping back one…two…three…four…and five._

_I look to my left._

_I see somebody sitting in front of a 1980s-style jukebox and on a red loveseat sofa while flipping through some things in a cardboard box._

_Could that be Greasy?_

_I need a better look._

_Even though I'm wearing my glasses, I see the stranger as a blurry being like I don't have my glasses on right now._

"_I see you but I can't tell if you're a friend of mine or not." I said the person as I walked towards him. "Can you tell me who you are please?"_

_The being looked up and aimed his attention at me._

"No te preocupes, cariño."_The being replied. "I'm Greasy. I'm not a stranger and I can assure you that I mean no harm." _

_I immediately stop walking and stare at 'Greasy' in suspiciously and hesitantly._

_Even though the being told me that he's Greasy, I'm not going to make an immediate confirmation that he's telling the truth._

"_Come over here and sit down next to me." 'Greasy' said._

"_Okay." I replied with reluctance in my voice._

_I walked towards the loveseat sofa as I stared to have a better view of 'Greasy' (who is now flipping through the things that are in the cardboard box)._

_The being has Greasy's green zoot suit coat, green baggy pants, black and white spectator shoes, white shirt, pink tie, green zoot hat with a black strap around it, and hands._

_But the being doesn't have Greasy's hair._

_Plus, I can't see his face._

Why is 'Greasy' hiding his face? _I thought as I sat down on the left side of the loveseat sofa. _What if I'm not talking to Greasy? What if I'm talking to an imposter?

'_Greasy' glanced at my legs after I thought of the last question and he looked at me._

_My eyes widen in shock._

_The face…is a mask._


	5. Chapter 5: Beatrice's Bizarre Dream

**Chapter Five**

**Beatrice:**

_'Greasy'…is wearing…a mask._

_ Not just any mask._

_It's a Guy Fawkes mask._

_You probably know what it looks like._

_If not, then—_

_*groan*!_

_I can't explain what the mask looks like right now!_

_Just look up 'Guy Fawkes Mask' on the Internet!_

_Anyway, I can now see the imposter's hair, too, and it's long but it's not toon-like or greasy like Greasy's._

_What does the hair look like?_

_Like I said before, it's long like Greasy's BUT it's NOT TOON-LIKE OR GREASY! Plus, the mask's hair is not black like Greasy's. IT'S BROWN! A COMBINATION OF MILK CHOCOLATE and DARK CHOCOLATE BROWN! Plus, it has short bangs!_

"_Are you telling me the truth?" I asked the masked being. "Are you sure that you're Greasy?"_

"_What makes you ask that, _cariño_?" He asked._

"_Well, you have Greasy's clothes, voice, and hands but you're wearing a mask that symbolizes dissent."_

"_I am Greasy."_

"_Then why are you wearing a Guy Fawkes mask?"_

'_Greasy' is just…looking at me._

_The reaction that he's giving me right now…Oh, my gosh, it's scaring me._

_ "I'm going to ask you a second time and I'm not going to ask it again." I said firmly. "If you say that you're Greasy, then why are you wearing a Guy Fawkes mask?"_

_ "Shhh." 'Greasy' whispered._

_ Okay, this is going too far._

_ I'm going to take the mask off of 'Greasy'._

_ I'm not going to have a conversation with him if he has the mask on his face._

_ I'm reaching towards the mask with my right hand…_

_ "What are you doing, _cariño_?" 'Greasy' asked with nervousness in his voice._

_ I'm not going to answer him. I'm extremely occupied with one thing and one thing only._

Just rip off the mask and demand for answers! _I thought._

_ Suddenly, as if he had very good reflexes, 'Greasy' grabbed my wrist._

_ I'm expecting him to yell at me angrily._

_ *gasp*_

_ His grip on my wrist is loosening up a little._

_ Is 'Greasy' trying to trick me?_

_ "Are you trying to take my mask off?" 'Greasy' asked._

_ I frowned and nodded._

_ "You don't want to see me without the mask." 'Greasy' said as he gently placed my hand down. _

_ "You're trying to hide something from me." I replied._

_ "No, I'm not."_

_ "Yes…you are."_

_ "Why are you saying that?"_

_ "I think that you're hiding something from me by wearing a mask and not giving me a reason. Plus, you're not being honest with me and I don't like that. I don't like it when people aren't being honest with me."_

_ 'Greasy' tilted his head._

_ "I'm not being honest with you?" He asked._

_ "You're not." I replied._

_ "I'm sorry, _querida_. I truly am sorry. How should I make everything up for you?"_

_ "By giving me the reason why you're wearing a mask and what you're hiding from me."_

_ 'Greasy' sighed._

_ "Okay." He said. "There are some things that I rather not talk about and you'll be very frightened if I take off the mask. I am Greasy. All that you're seeing is my body but what you're not seeing is my real face."_

_ "You're not making any sense."_

_ 'Greasy' placed his right hand on the left side of my face._

_ "What I'm trying to say is that you've known me for several months." He said. "We're really great friends. Despite of that, you don't know a lot about me."_

_ "When you said that there are some things that you don't want to talk about, are those things that I don't know about?"_

_ 'Greasy' nodded._

_ "That's right." He said. "Those things are really bad and I'm pretty sure that you'll feel really sad if I told you. I don't want you to be sad."_

_ "Okay." I replied, making it sound like I understand when I'm actually really curious to know about those things._

_ I really hope that 'Greasy's' buying my reply._

_ It would be very bad if—_

_ "Do you really want to see what's underneath the mask?" 'Greasy' asked._

_ I looked at him._

_ "Well, do you?" 'Greasy' asked again._

_ "Yes, I do." I replied._

_ "Okay, I'm going to take it off. Don't be scared."_

_ I nodded as 'Greasy' brought his hands up to the sides of his mask._

_ The suspense is building up…and it's killing me._

_ I'm pretty sure that 'Greasy' isn't going to look too bad without the mask._

_ "Okay, I'm taking it off right now." 'Greasy' said._

_ Immediately after saying that, the mask just dropped down from his face, rolled off his lap, and slid down to the floor._

_ "Do you want me to—?" I began as I turned my head to look at 'Greasy'._

_ I cut myself off and gasped in horror._

_ I'm not looking at a face._

_ I'm looking at Greasy's body…WITHOUT HAVING HIS FACE OR HIS HEAD!_

_ Oh, my gosh!_

…..

I gasped and panted as my eyes shot open in horror.

It's morning.

It's…nine-thirty in the morning.

Oh, my gosh!

What just happened?!

I was at Cressida's party, I fell asleep, missing _Edward Scissorhands_ in the process, I dreamt of walking into a strange room that had all of my memories and favorite songs with a feeling of someone following me, woke up—

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, I should stop right there.

Why?

Because I have to get to the point on why I started freaking out.

I'm going to tell you right now.

I just dreamt of a dream that I was dreaming of when I accidentally fell asleep at Cressida's house. Well, I dreamt of that dream for a little bit at Cressida's and when I left and went to bed (which I'm still lying on right now), I dreamt more of the dream before waking up.

That's what happened.

I was dreaming of myself walking into a strange room that had a lot of my memories in it. Greasy was in the dream—No, it wasn't just GREASY but it was GREASY WITH ONLY A GUY FAWKES MASK FOR A FACE!

*sigh*

I can't panic.

I have to stop doing that.

Sure, I have dreamed of a couple of dreams with Greasy in them. But a dream of Greasy having a Guy Fawkes mask for a face…that's very unusual.

What could the dream mean?

I'm going to analyze it real carefully.

In the dream, I was walking—

Wait a minute, I should use my tape recorder for this.

I haven't used it in a while and I think that maybe I can use it as a type of journal…except that I'm using my voice instead of writing every single little detail down on a piece of paper.

I'm going to use my tape recorder for later.

Why?

Because right now…I'm really hungry and I need to eat some breakfast.


	6. Chapter 6: The Tape Recorder Entry

**Chapter Six**

***8:05:34 pm***

**Beatrice:**

It is now late in the evening and I now have the time to use my tape recorder and record my personal feelings and the dream that made me freak out a little bit this morning.

Why did I have to wait until it was late in the evening?

Using the tape recorder after breakfast wasn't a good time because Dad wanted to spend some time with me and Tommy for most of today.

What did we all do?

Dad, Tommy, and I went fishing, ate lunch, and went out to get some ice cream.

Tommy and I had great time and it was great to spend a lot of time with our dad while doing something that we haven't done since we were little kids.

Now that I'm in my room, I'm not going to waste ANY time to use my tape recorder.

"Beatrice, I'm going to pick up some Chinese food." Dad said behind my partially opened door. "Do you want me to get you the usual?"

"Shrimp fried rice with a spring roll? Yes." I replied.

"Okay. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"All right."

...I know that I said that I wasn't going to waste any time but I had to give up that small amount of time so that I can tell my dad what I wanted to have from our favorite local Chinese restaurant.

Now that my dad is going to pick up some food for dinner, I'm going to start recording RIGHT NOW.

I open up top left desk drawer and pulled out my pocket tape recorder.

"All right." I said to myself. "Let's test you out and see if you work."

I press the buttons that allow the tape recorder to record things and I say in a loud and clear voice,

"This is a test."

Then, I stop the tape recorder, rewind the tape, and immediately pressed PLAY button.

"_*static* This is a te—"_

Whoa, did it just—?

I rewind the tape and press PLAY again.

"_*static* This is a te—"_

Yep.

That's where tape stops.

I'm going to need another tape recorder.

But where am I going to get another one?

Hmm, I do remember seeing my dad move some of his mother's stuff into the attic after she passed away while I was about to being fifth grade.

Did my dad's mother have a tape recorder?

Yeah, she did and it's a portable reel-to-reel tape recorder.

It's also pretty old.

I also remember that my dad's mother always bought extra reels because she would record her feelings and life experiences almost every day before she passed away.

What the heck am I waiting for?

I have a dream to record!

I'll be right back!

…..

**Tommy:**

"_Ugh! I hate it when the trays are wet." _

_"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."_

_ "Is that from a song? Hey, thanks for helping me out in art."_

_ "No problem."_

Oh! Sorry!

I'm just watching one of my and Beatrice's favorite shows that I like to watch on nights when I feel like I have nothing to do.

What show am I watching?

_Daria._

Yeah, I know. It's a pretty old show but I like it!

…No, I'm not watching a rerun of _Daria._

I'm watching the show on a DVD that Beatrice got two Christmases ago.

But that's not important right now.

What's important right now is what Beatrice has been thinking about while we were spending the day with Dad.

Seriously, I knew that something was on Beatrice's mind.

How did I know?

Because Beatrice was deep in thought while we were fishing and her eyes were aimed at the ceiling while we ate ice cream with Dad at the ice cream parlor.

Should I ask Beatrice what she has been thinking about throughout today?

Hmm, maybe later.

I should probably wait until Dad comes home with the dinner.

Maybe if whatever Beatrice was thinking about has been bothering her, Dad will probably give her a few suggestions or maybe a piece of advice.

…...

**Beatrice:**

All right.

I found the tape recorder right where I thought it was going to be.

Is it set up?

Yep.

The tape recorder is plugged in, fixed, and almost ready to go.

"Okay." I said to myself. "Let's test you out."

I grab the microphone (that came with the tape recorder) and press the RECORD button.

I carefully brought the microphone to my mouth and said in a clear voice,

"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain."

Then, I unlocked the RECORD button, pressed REWIND, stopped the recorder, and pressed PLAY.

"_...The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain."_

Yes, the tape recorder works!

I can now get to work on recording my thoughts about my dream.

I brought the microphone up to my mouth and pressed the RECORD button.

"Okay," I began, "let me begin this recording by introducing myself. My name is Beatrice Birchwood. I am seventeen years old and I will be eighteen on twenty-third of July. I am recording this because I had a strange dream last night about my friend, Greasy, who, like I said, is a friend of mine and he is a toon weasel. My dream starts off with me walking down a dim-lit hall. In the dream, I didn't know why I was in the hallway but I still walked and started to think about my reason. Then, I heard a voice telling me to come into a room after seeing a room at the end of the hallway. As soon as I stepped into the room, I was shocked and surprised to see that the room contained all of my past memories and things that I've worn during my childhood years. After looking at a memory of Kaitlyn, the voice that told me to come into the room made itself known again but this time, it told me that I needed to step back and look at it. That's when I realized that it was Greasy who was talking to me. After I did what Greasy told me to do, I was surprised to see that he was sitting on a couch while wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. After Greasy invited me to sit down with him on the couch, I had to ask him why he was wearing the mask. Greasy acted like he had something to hide and I was eventually at the point when I had to try to take the mask off. Immediately after Greasy stopped me, I told him that since he was hiding something from me, he wasn't being honest to me and I didn't like that. I thought that was talking to an imposter, despite of him having Greasy's clothes, voice, and hands. After apologizing to me and a minute of insisting, Greasy asked me what he should do to make everything up to me and I told him that he needed to take the mask off. Finally, Greasy gave in and took off the mask. Immediately after taking the mask off, he dropped it and allowed it to roll down to the floor of the memory room. I was about to ask Greasy if I could pick up the mask but I stopped and looked at him in horror. I was looking at headless and faceless Greasy. Seeing that scared me half to death and I had to wake up. I don't know what the dream means. Could it mean something terrible or could the dream be about something big happening later in the future? Whatever the meaning, I hope that it's not bad."

I stop the tape recorder and I sighed as I set the microphone aside.

Then, I stretched my arms and cracked my knuckles.

"Wow. Now that was a mouthful." I said to myself.


	7. Chapter 7: Thoughts and Lessons

**Chapter Seven**

**Beatrice:**

"What was on your mind today, Beatrice?" Tommy asked me as we started eating our dinner with Dad.

"What was on my mind today?" I asked back.

"Yeah. You didn't say very much while we were spending some time with Dad. Was and is something bothering you?"

"I was thinking about a dream that I dreamt of last night. It wasn't bothering me. I was just constantly reminding myself to record the dream down before I forget."

"Dream?" Dad asked after swallowing his food. "What was the dream about?"

I thought about not repeating the dream to anybody after recording it but since this is my dad and I'm trying to speak a little more than usual, I should tell him but not in a lot of details.

"In the dream, I walked into a room that contained all of my memories from my past and certain objects that were really important to me in my childhood." I explained. "After a brief second of looking at my memories, I was surprised to see a friend of mine sitting on a sofa while he had a mask covering his face. I tried to persuade him to take off the mask but my friend…"

I stop right there.

If I tell Dad about Greasy, then it might threaten the secret of my and Tommy's gift of seeing, hearing, and talking to Toons that can't be seen by those who don't have the gift that Tommy and I have.

How am I going to tell Dad about Greasy without threatening the secret?

I don't want to lie to my dad.

"Beatrice, are you okay?" Dad asked.

"Yeah, Dad." I replied. "I'm okay."

"You don't have to talk more about the dream if it's bothering you, Beatrice."

"No, no. I would like to continue."

"Okay. Go ahead."

"All right. Where was—Oh, yeah. My friend refused to take off the mask after I tried to tell him to take it off because the mask was freaking me out. I finally persuaded my friend to take off the mask after telling him that he wasn't being honest with me. Just as my friend was about to take off the mask, he told me to not be afraid. Then, the mask fell down from my friend's face, rolled off his lap, and landed on the floor of the memory room. To my shock, my friend didn't have his face or head."

"Oh, my!" Tommy exclaimed.

"That's scary and interesting." Dad said.

I scoop up some of the fried rice with my spoon and brought it up to my mouth.

Mmmmmm, my gosh, this so delicious.

"What's scaring me is trying to understand the dream." I explained after swallowing. "I don't understand why I had to walk into a room that had a lot of memories from my past and discover that my friend didn't have a face or a head."

"I think that your dream is giving you a message about something." Tommy replied. "The dream is telling you that an opportunity is about to be given to you, Beatrice."

I look at Tommy with surprise.

Then, he noticed that I was looking at him.

"You're wondering about my reply." Tommy said after a pause. "Trust me, Beatrice. I've read a couple of things about dream symbols and I taught myself to find the meanings of the symbols and connect the meanings after that."

"That's a pretty good skill, Tommy." Dad said with a mouthful of Chinese food.

"Thanks, Dad."

"Can you tell me what you know, Tommy?" I asked.

"Sure. The door that led you to the room that contained all of your memories of your past meant that it's leading you to an opportunity that you don't fully know. The mask that your friend was wearing meant that he's hiding something from you."

I nodded slowly in understanding.

"Okay." I replied. "Keep going."

"Your dream is telling you that you're being lead to an opportunity to knowing more things about your friend, even though he wants to keep some things hidden." Tommy explained.

"Do you really think so?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Okay, Tommy. I'll remember that."

Oh, man. That was too close.

I was so close to revealing the secret of my (and Tommy's) gift, powers, and interactions with Toons and Yen Sid.

I mean, I know that Dad met Yen Sid when Tommy and I were born but I'm afraid that if I tell Dad about Yen Sid, the gift, and the powers, he might have bad memories come back to him or maybe freak out.

I don't like to hide stuff from my dad.

I'm very close to him and I get along better with him than Mom.

It doesn't feel right to hide everything that Tommy and I had to experience since our first trip to 1947 Hollywood and Toon Town.

…..*sigh*….

Maybe I should talk to Yen Sid when I have the time.

I can't tell Dad anything yet until I find out what Yen Sid wants me to do after we talk over the secret that Tommy and I have promised to never reveal to anyone who aren't involved in the destinies that Tommy and I are a part of.

…..

***TIME SKIP***

***9:00:34 AM***

"I know it's kind of early for me to make a recording at this time but Tommy and my dad are still sleeping and I wanted to talk to somebody about what's on my mind right now." I said as I recorded myself with the tape recorder. "I've added more questions on my long list of questions about the Toon Patrol. These are my questions. How did the Toon Patrol come together? Were they drawn by the same cartoonist or were they drawn by other people? Do the members of the Toon Patrol have any families? Was Greasy's hair always long or was it short during one part of his life?"

I pause and took a deep breath.

"Now that I've recorded my questions, I would like to add—"

*DUN, DUN, DUN*

"Okay, somebody's knocking on my door. I will pause this recording for a temporary moment and come back and finish what I have to say."

I press the STOP button.

Then, I cleared my throat.

"Who is it?" I asked the person behind my bedroom door.

"Guess who it is." …Greasy replied.

I chuckled and shook my head.

"Greasy, is that you?" I asked as I smirked.

"No, it's Bing Crosby." Greasy replied. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Of course it's me!"

"Well, what are you doing out in the hallway? Come on in."

As I listened to the sound doorknob jiggling and turning, I quickly undid my messy ponytail and combed my fingers through my hair, trying to make my hair less messy and more slightly better.

Hey, I'm not fixing my hair because I have on Greasy (I still like him as friend).

I'm trying to fix my hair because I think it's pretty weird to have a messy ponytail and bedhead while I'm with a friend.

So…yeah.

Anyway, I heard the door open and close.

I quickly tied my hair back into a ponytail as Greasy said,

"Who were you talking to, Beatrice?"

"I was just recording my personal thoughts with this old tape recorder." I replied. "I wasn't really talking to anyone."

"Oh. Why were you recording your personal thoughts with a tape recorder?"

"I wanted to talk to Tommy and or my dad about what I was thinking but since they're still sleeping, I had to use the tape recorder and act like I'm talking to somebody."

"I see."

As we continued with our conversation, Greasy took his hat off and started to brush it with his hand.

"So what brings you here?" I asked.

"Just came to see how you're doing." Greasy replied as he put his hat back on his head.

"Ah."

"I'm also curious about that tape recorder. I know it may sound _ridículo o demente_ but I don't know how to use a tape recorder. How does it work? Can you show me how to use it?"

I nodded.

"Sure." I replied.

I picked up the microphone and placed in front and between me and Greasy.

"You get this microphone ready and set it at the perfect angle where it can hear you speak." I explained. "When you feel like you're ready to say something or when you want record something very useful and important, you press this RECORD button…"

I press the RECORD button.

"…and as you can see, the recorder is working and the microphone is picking up what I'm saying, even though it's not really close to my mouth."

Greasy smiled and chuckled a little bit.

"Now I'm going to say the first thing that just popped into my mind." I continued and picked up the microphone.

"Okay." Greasy said.

I bring the microphone up to my lips and said clearly,

"I have nothing important to say today."

Greasy laughed.

I chuckled a little bit.

"Now, to stop the tape recorder, I simply press the STOP button…" I continued and pressed the button. "…and the tape recorder stops recording. In order to play the things that you've said to the tape recorder, you press the REWIND button and the rewinding begins. Then, you press STOP again…" I pressed the STOP button. "…and finally, you press PLAY."

Then, I press the PLAY button.

"…_and as you can see, the recorder is working and the microphone is picking up what I'm saying, even though it's not really close to my mouth._" I said in the recording. "_Now I'm going to say the first thing that just popped into my mind."_

_ "Okay." _ Greasy said in the recording.

"_I have nothing important to say today."_

Greasy and I laughed.

Oh, I hope that I didn't laugh too loudly.

I don't want to wake up Tommy and or Dad.

I stop the recording.

"And that's how you work with a tape recorder." I said to Greasy.

"All right, then." Greasy replied. "Now that you've given me _algunas instrucciones, _I'll remember the next time I use a tape recorder."

"If you forget any of the steps, I can always repeat them again."  
"_Gracias, _Beatrice."

"No problem."

(I actually did a few searches on the Internet a couple of days ago and I know what 'thank you' means in Spanish.)

"So what are you going to do today?" Greasy asked.

"I don't know." I replied. "I'm waiting for my dad to wake up and tell me and Tommy what we're going to do today. What about you?"

"I thought of hanging out with you for a while. I haven't really thought of doing anything else…unfortunately."

"Has Smarty given you any ideas?"

"No. When I—"

"Beatrice?" I heard Dad said from the hallway.

"Hold on." I said to Greasy.

Then, I looked at my closed bedroom door.

"Yes, Dad?" I asked.

"We're leaving in forty-five minutes." Dad replied.

"Why?"

"We're going to help Grandpappy do a couple of improvement projects at his church. There's not enough people to help him."

"Okay. I'll eat in a couple of minutes."

"All right."

I looked at Greasy.

"Would you like to come along?" I asked.

"I would love to but I have to head back to Toon Town." Greasy replied. "When I left to come talk to you, Smarty and the others were sleeping. I have to go back. When are you going to be back?"

"I'll probably be back during the late afternoon hours."

"Okay."


	8. Chapter 8: Hints and Questions

**Chapter Eight**

***12:30:34 pm***

**Beatrice:**

"What are you planning to do throughout the summer, Beatrice?" Cressida asked me as we were eating some catered deli sandwiches during our lunch break at Grandpappy's church.

"I don't know." I replied after swallowing a bite of my turkey, cheese, and avocado sandwich. "I'll probably do what I usually do in the summer."

"What's that?"

"Read, do some volunteer work, play a little bit of tennis, and swim."

"Is that all you're going to do?"

"Yeah, probably so. What about you?"

Cressida took a bite of her tuna salad and black olive sandwich.

"I honestly don't know." She replied as she chewed on her sandwich. "Since Penny and I came here and started to adjust to everything, I haven't really thought of anything."

As Cressida swallowed her sandwich, I said,

"I would also like to confess that I've been reading the same mystery books for thirteen summers. After the first two of the thirteen summers, the books were great. But as the remaining summers came and went, the books were quickly becoming predictable."

"Predictable? Like you know what happens after turning a page and you know how the story ends?" Cressida asked.

"Yep."

"Oh."

"So I'm not sure what to do. I can't decide whether I should read the books again…or maybe try to one of two things. I can try to create my own mystery or I can try to solve a case that hasn't been solved yet."

"The last one sounds difficult and cool. What mystery are you planning to create?"

My eyes widen in surprise.

Uh oh.

I have to tell Cressida.

I can't keep this a secret bottled up any longer.

After glancing around my surroundings, I say to Cressida in a soft voice,

"I don't want you to tell anyone, not even the Toon Patrol, that I've told you this. Since you're my best friend, I'm going to tell you something that I never brought up to anyone."

"What?" Cressida asked.

"I'm trying to know more about Smarty, Greasy, Wheezy, Psycho, and Stupid."

"Really?"

"I know it sounds insane that even though we've known each other for almost a year, I don't know a lot about the Toon Patrol. I'm trying to figure out how Smarty and the others came together and formed the Toon Patrol. That's why I'm thinking about trying to create my own mystery because the history and origins of the Toon Patrol are a mystery to me."

"Oh, I see. Well, I can tell you a couple of things about Psycho and Wheezy. When I invited Wheezy and the others to my party, I noticed that Wheezy started acting really weird. I asked him about why he was acting really funny and Wheezy told me that he was afraid of airplanes since an airplane came by during the party. He also told me that he didn't want to talk any more about his fear of airplanes because of bad memories."

I nodded.

"Wheezy must have a phobia of flying and airplanes because what you just told me gave me an idea that in one part of Wheezy's life, something that involved flying and airplanes traumatized him." I said.

"That's what I think, too." Cressida replied.

"What about Psycho?"

"When I had to do a carnival skit with Psycho, Otatop, and Elppa in my second period drama class, Psycho refused to say his lines or do his parts."

"He probably must've forgotten his lines and directions."

"No, Psycho remembered his lines and directions. I know because he was constantly repeating them over and over and during times when it wasn't necessary to say the lines or follow the given directions."

"Then why did Psycho refuse to say his lines or follow his part?"

"He was ready to go on the day of the skit presentation but when Otatop taped some red balloons on the ceiling of the classroom, Psycho stared at the balloons in horror, fell down to the floor, landed flat on his belly, and stayed like that for the rest of the class period. I had to improvise and take over Psycho's parts so that the skit wouldn't get a bad grade."

My eyes widened.

"Oh, my goodness." I said.

I take a bite of my sandwich and started to chew as I began to think about what Cressida told me.

Something about airplanes and flying gave Wheezy a phobia of flying and airplanes after something or someone became the cause in some part of his life.

_And Psycho just dropped down to the floor after seeing red balloons. _I thought. _Does Psycho always act funny around red balloons? Do red balloons have something to do with something terrible in Psycho's life? _

I swallow my sandwich.

"Did you ask Psycho why he was acting funny after he saw the red balloons?" I asked Cressida.

"I did but he refused to tell me." She replied. "After two more attempts, I decided to not bring up the Red Balloon Incident again or mention anything about red balloons to Psycho."

"Are you sure that it's just red balloons and not balloons that come in other colors?"

"I'm sure. After what happened to Psycho in theater, I grabbed some paper and began to draw blue, yellow, orange, and pink balloons. When Psycho saw those balloons, he didn't flip out or reacted the way he acted in my drama class. Then, I grabbed another piece of paper and I immediately began to draw red balloons."

"And Psycho started acting funny?"

"Yeah…well, sort of."

"'Sort of'?"

"Psycho looked at the red balloons for literally two seconds and ran away from me."

"Hmm."

"Do you have any thoughts about Psycho's thing with red balloons?"

"Uh…well…"

"Beatrice!" Dad yelled from a distance.

"Yes, Dad?"

"Are you done eating?"

"I'm almost done!"

"Okay. Finish up and get ready to start working in a few minutes!"

"Yes, Dad."

…..

***3:35:12 PM***

I press the RECORD button on the tape recorder and said clearly into the microphone,

"Okay, sorry that I took so long. I was really busy and I had to show Greasy how to make a tape recorder work. Now that I'm back, I'm going to record some things that Cressida told me while I was helping my grandfather with doing some improvements for his church. Cressida told me that Wheezy has a terrible fear of airplanes and flying. Whenever an airplane is flying across the sky, Wheezy would not act like his usual calm and pretty quiet self. I also found out from Cressida that Psycho would act really strange if he sees one or a lot of red balloons. I have a couple of guesses about why Psycho would go crazy if he sees one or a lot of red balloons at certain places."

I stop and quickly took a deep breath.

"Excuse me." I continued. "My first guess is that Psycho could be a Toon who, in the process of being drawn, was created with something that some humans get or diagnosed with. But then again, he hasn't been displaying any signs that can give me the evidence to make a conclusion. So I'm not going to ask Psycho. My second guess is psychological trauma. Maybe Psycho became afraid of red balloons because some crazy and evil person used them as a type of tool that adds fear. It could be that but…I don't know."

I stop again and this time, I clear my throat.

"Since I don't really have a lot of things in mind for this summer," I continued, "I think that I'm going to create my own mystery that I can try to solve myself. The history of the Toon Patrol is the mystery. Even though Tommy, Cressida, Penny, and I are friends with Smarty, Greasy, Wheezy, Psycho, and Stupid, there are still several things that we don't know about them. I want to ask Greasy and the others about how they formed the Toon Patrol and what their lives were like before they came together and formed the Toon Patrol…but I'm afraid that it might not work out. Why? Smarty and the others may not want to answer me. So what am I going to do? Probably just keep guessing until I have a feeling that not a lot of my guesses are correct. So…yeah. I have to go get myself some water. My throat feels a little scratchy right now."


	9. Chapter 9: A Letter

**Chapter Nine **

**Beatrice:**

"Beatrice?"

I turn off the running water and asked back,

"Yes, Daddy?"

"What are you doing right now?" Dad called from the living room.

"I'm getting myself a glass of water."

"I need to talk to you for a second."

"Okay, Dad."

I pick up my glass of water and I began to walk my way to the living room.

"What do you want to talk about, Daddy?" I asked after seeing Dad relaxing on the couch.

"I already talked to Tommy about this a few minutes ago and I thought that I should talk to you when I had the time." Dad replied. "Since right now's a good time, I think that I should tell you right now."

"What is it? What's going on?"

"I'm going to be busy with my next book for the next six weeks and I'll be working in my study a lot. I'm not trying to isolate myself from you and Tommy. It's just that I'm behind on a lot of things on my book because I was busy with other things."

"It's okay, Dad, I understand."

"While I work on my book, I'm going to allow you and Tommy to do whatever y'all want to do like hang out with your friends and stuff like that."

"I'm also thinking about looking for a part-time job that's suitable for me. Is that also okay?"

"As long as it's a suitable job and it doesn't take up too much of your time."

"Thank you, Daddy."

Dad sighed.

"All right, Beatrice. That's all I wanted to tell you." He said.

"Take frequent breaks when you're working with your computer and don't forget to exercise a little bit." I replied.

"I won't forget."

"Oh, and don't hurt yourself."

"I won't."

As I began to walk my way to my room, I took a sip of my water.

Oh, man.

That feels good on my throat.

I swallow.

"Ahh, that was good." I said to myself.

…..

***FIVE SECONDS LATER***

I set my glass down and press the RECORD button.

After bringing the microphone up to my mouth, I cleared my throat and said clearly,

"So the history of the Toon Patrol is going to be considered a mystery to me. In order for me to continue to help Greasy and the others reform, I have to know about their pasts that I can be aware some things and make sure that I don't bring up anything that can upset them or make them angry in any way. How am I going to—?"

*CRIK*!

"Whoa, what was that?"

What just I heard sounded like…paper landing on something after being thrown.

Where did that sound come from?

There aren't any loose sheets of papers on my desk…because all of the sheets of paper that I have are in one of desk drawers.

So how can that—?

Wait.

What's that on my bed?

I stop the tape recorder.

…Is that a—?

Yeah, it's an envelope…and it doesn't say who left it there.

I bring the envelope to my desk, sit it down, grabbed my letter opener, and cut the top of the envelope carefully but quickly.

There's a sheet of paper inside.

I reach into the envelope and pulled out the sheet of paper.

I carefully unfolded the sheet of paper.

Oh, there's something written on the paper.

It says:

_Do you want to know about the Toon Patrol?_

_ Well, you're in luck._

_ The library in Toon Town contains all of the information of the Toon Patrol._

_ Go to the Toon Town Library and you'll find what you need but you'll have to go a very long way to the information once you step in._

_ If you have a bookcase, look for a book with a blue cover._

_ If you don't have any books with a blue cover, then look for a book with a white cover instead._

_ Once you find either one of those books, push one in to your bookcase and it'll open up and lead you to the City of Toon Town._

_ Be careful when you step into the City of Toon Town._

_ It can be awfully crazy there._

_ Let Benny take you to the Toon Town Library._

_ Be careful and good luck._

Okay, somebody knows what I'm up to.

The good news is that the person is being very helpful.

The bad news is that I don't know who wrote this.

I would know if that person left a clue about their identity on the paper or if I can recognize their handwriting.

Unfortunately, this person's handwriting is super neat and I'm used to seeing slightly and extremely messy handwriting because I see messy handwriting almost every day.

"So this person wants me to go to the Toon Town Library." I said to myself out loud. "Hmm, wow. They just helped me find where I can find some information. This is great! Now I'm getting somewhere!"

Oh, wait.

There's something else written under the note.

It says:

_PS: Don't think too long or waste any time._

_ The library closes around three o'clock._

_ PPS: Once you step into Toon Town, the bookcase is going to close back up._

"Hmm." I said. "It is…"

I look at my clock.

"…three-forty five. That's Houston, Texas time. Since Toon Town is in California, it's one-forty five over there. The note said that I have to go a long way once I step into the library and it closes around three o'clock in California time. I better go on ahead and go to the Toon Town Library before it closes."

All I need for this trip is my black JANSPORT backpack, a roll of quarters, and my iPhone 6.

…..

***FIFTY SECONDS LATER***

_All right_. I thought after folding the note and slipping it into my shorts pocket. _I'm ready to go._

"Time to look for blue-covered or white-covered books." I said and walked to my bookcase.

Hmm...

No…no…no…no…no…noooo…no…

Oh!

I found a book with a blue cover.

_Thank you, _Alice in Wonderland _book. _I thought.

Like I was pressing an elevator button, I push the book in.

…Nothing's happening.

…Hmm, let me try again.

I pull the book towards me a little bit and I push it in again.

…Okay, nothing's—

*KSSH!*

"Whoa!" I exclaimed softly.

My bookcase is making a hissing sound!

…And now my bookcase is shaking like an earthquake is occurring at this very moment!  
...*gasp*!

Now it's stopping…and it's slowly swinging open.

I see a bright light glowing brightly behind my bookcase…and I can hear sounds of cartoon traffic.

"TALLY HO! TALLY HO!"

Yep, that's the City of Toon Town.

Oh, man.

This is going to be my third time going there.

My first time was when Smarty and the others caught me, Tommy, and Eddie in Jessica Rabbit's dressing room and my second time was when Eddie and I had to chase after Jessica and look for Tommy and Roger.

"Here we go." I said after taking a deep breath.


	10. Chapter 10: To The Library!

**Chapter Ten**

**Beatrice:**

"Whoa!" I exclaimed as I tried to cross the crosswalk of the four-way street. "Excuse me!…I'm sorry!…Sorry!"

Oh, my goodness!

Toon Town is so crazy!

It's much crazier than my last two visits.

*BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!* *BEEEEEEP*!

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" An angry Toon shouted.

"I'm SORRY!" I exclaimed.

Ugh! Traffic is getting too crazy!

I almost got hit and ran over by four speeding cars.

Well, make that five speeding cars.

This street is too crazy to get a ride from Benny!

…Hmm, maybe I should find a street that's less crazy and I can get a ride from Benny.

That sounds like a good idea.

But where can I—?

Duh!

I'm going to walk down a sidewalk of this street that I'm on right now until I find a spot where it's not so busy and call for Benny.

Walking...down the sidewalk.

Now that I'm walking down the sidewalk, I'm beginning to notice that two toon buildings are watching me.

Yes, even buildings are alive in Toon Town.

…I just passed by the buildings that were watching me.

Let's just say that having two toon buildings watch me was just…really creepy.

…But at least I'm away from the traffic and I'm probably in a better place to call for Benny.

"Okay, let's see if the sticking-the-thumb-out idea still works." I said to myself.

I stick my thumb out like a person hitch-hiking for a ride.

*SCREEEEEEEEEEECH*!

Yes, Benny made it!  
And wow, he was quick!

"Hey there!" Benny exclaimed.

"Hey, Benny!" I replied with a smile.

"How are you doing, kid?"

"Very well, thank you."

"Where can I drive you?"

"Can you take me to the Toon Town Library, Benny?"

"I can drive you there! Hop on in!"

Benny opened his right side door, allowing me to climb in.

Immediately after I sat down, Benny closed the door and took off.

The toon buildings and the street look like blurs right now, thanks to Benny driving down the street at a pretty fast speed.

"So what made you want to go to the Toon Town Library, Beatrice?" Benny asked.

"I was wondering about some things about the Toon Patrol and somebody left me a note on my bed." I replied. "The person who gave me the note suggested that I should go to the Toon Town Library so that I can get more information."

"Why do you need information about the Toon Patrol?"

"Because I need to learn more about them so that I can get to know them better and be aware of anything that can set them off."

"Wouldn't it be easier to ask the Toon Patrol?"

"I would've done that but I had a feeling that they might refuse to talk about their pasts."

"Yeah, that's true. I can see your point."

…..

***FIVE MINUTES LATER***

"How much money do I owe you, Benny?" I asked after Benny screeched to a stop in front of the Toon Town Library.

"Somebody already paid for you so you don't owe me anything." Benny replied.

"Somebody already paid you for me? Who was it?"

"I'm sorry, Beatrice, but I can't reveal that to you."

"Oh, okay. But at least let me give you a tip."

Benny widened his eyes in surprise.

"A tip? What for?" He asked.

"For helping me, Tommy, Eddie, and Roger escape from the Toon Patrol when they had to help Judge Doom." I replied.

I took my backpack off and quickly pulled out my roll of quarters.

I immediately tore a little bit of the plastic wrapping off of the quarters and shook two dollars and fifty cents (in quarters) into the palm of my hand.

A mechanical white-gloved hand with a silver soup can popped out from Benny's dashboard and it stretched its way towards me.

"That's a tip jar that I carry around when I'm on duty." Benny said. "You can put your tip in there."

I add the tip into the jar and it immediately disappeared back into the dashboard with the mechanical gloved hand.

"Thank you, Beatrice." Benny said.

"And thank you, Benny, for giving me a lift." I replied.

"Good luck on finding some useful information!"

Then, Benny took off.

"Tell Roger and Jessica that I said 'Hello' if you see them today!" I shouted.

I smiled as Benny drove off to who-knows-where.

I sighed.

"It sure was nice to see Benny." I said to myself.

It is also nice to see that Benny's in good condition…after he crashed into a lamp pole during the time when Roger was a fugitive during the murder of Marvin Acme.

I clear my throat.

"I have to focus right now." I said to myself. "I have some research to do."

Then, I turn to the Toon Town Library.

What does it look like?

The Toon Town Library looks like the White House except it looks a little bit smaller and it was light brown and white instead all white. Unlike the White House, the Toon Town Library didn't have a water fountain in front of it. Instead, most of the ground was covered with gray stones.

"Obviously, that's the Toon Town Library." I said to myself. "I need to go in there right now before I change my mind about everything."

…

As soon as I step in to the library, I felt a cold breeze blasting into me, immediately giving me goose bumps.

Good. I needed that.

(Not only it's crazy and kind of crowded in the city of Toon Town, it's also really, really, really hot!)

The inside of the library…oh, my gosh, it's a bookworm's paradise!

There are HUUUUGE bookcases and mountains of books that look like their touching the ceiling because of how big they are.

Unlike the city of Toon Town, the Toon Town Library is nice and QUIET.

Oh, man, I can stay in this library for hours or maybe even days if I had the chance.

But unfortunately, I can't.

I have to get the information that can help me know more about the Toon Patrol and go back home before the library closes.

"Can I help you with something, miss?" A voice asked.

"Huh?" I asked back.

"Look to your left, please." Another voice (this one had a Scottish accent) said.

"Okay."

I look to my left…and I saw…a toon rat with a light brown mustache and toon badger with an orange scarf.

_Weren't they in _The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad_? _I thought.

"What can we help you with, miss?" The toon rat asked.

"I-I-I'm looking for some information about the To-Toon Patrol." I replied.

Whoa, why did I stutter?

"Why do you need information about the Toon Patrol?" The toon badger asked.

"I would like to do some research on their pasts and know how the Toon Patrol was formed." I replied. "I even promised that I was going to help the Toon Patrol reform but I feel like I can't do that without knowing about their pasts."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." The toon rat said. "Did you say that you were going to help the Toon Patrol reform?"

I nodded my head.

"Yes, sir." I said.

"What is your name?" The rat asked.

"My name is Beatrice."

The toon badger's eyes widened to the size of sugar plums.

"Beatrice? Beatrice…Birchwood?" He asked.

"Yes, sir." I replied.

"Oh, yeah, I remember you!" The rat exclaimed softly. "You were the one who helped everyone in Zelkova stand up against the principal."

"Yes, sir. I'm the student."

"You said that you wanted information the Toon Patrol." The badger said. "Is that right?"

"Yes, sir."

The badger reached down and took out…a lit lantern.

"Then, you will need…this lantern." He said.

"Why do I need a lantern?" I asked. "I can see everything in here just fine."

"No, you do need the lantern, Beatrice." The rat replied. "You need it because the history of the Toon Patrol is located in the darkest and the most surreal part of the Toon Town Library."

I nod in understanding.

"Okay, I can see your point." I said.

"As soon as you find the information of the Toon Patrol," The badger said as he was writing something on a small sheet of paper, "there is an elevator that can take you right back up here. Since the library close in a few minutes, I'm going to allow you to check out the information. Return the Toon Patrol information as soon as you're done with them."

Then, he gave me the sheet of paper.

"What's this sheet of paper for?" I asked.

"I have written some directions for you." The badger replied. "Ratty and I would like to help but since we have a lot of stuff to do, you will have to look for the information yourself. I'm very sorry."

"Don't worry, sir. I understand. I think that I can find the Toon Patrol information with the help of your directions."

"Okay. Be careful and good luck."

"Thank you very much."


	11. Chapter 11: Beatrice's Library Journey

**Chapter Eleven**

**Beatrice:**

** Walk down the "Long Hallway"**

** Go to a door that's labeled "The Dark River"**

** After opening the door, walk down the staircase.**

** Walk down two more staircases**

** Climb into the raft at the end of the second staircase**

** Row down the river until you come by a door labeled "The Histories"**

** Open the door and walk in**

** Walk to the bookcase with the top end touching the wall**

** Follow the sign that says "ROPE"**

** Get the rope**

** Open the door that's under the bookcase (There's a hole)**

** Slide the rope down into the hole**

** Stop adding the rope when you see a ring of red paint**

** Wait twenty seconds**

** Pull the rope out of the hole (There will a bucket tied on to the end)**

** Gather your information and wait for a DING**

** Use the elevator**

Those are the instructions that the toon badger wrote on the sheet of paper.

I know that it sounds like of instructions but hey, I'm not familiar with the Toon Town Library and I have to follow the instructions so that I can get that information and go home before the library closes.

Right now, I'm walking down the Long Hallway.

Thank goodness that I have the lantern.

It's so dark in the Long Hallway.

Although the lantern is lit, the flame's not bright enough to give me a better view. It's really, really, really dark…and creepy.

I feel like I'm in a mystery-horror movie.

No, make that an _Indiana Jones_-like movie.

I feel like I'm—

Wait a second.

I see a door.

It has something written on it.

It says: "**Raven Falls**".

The toon badger's list says that I have to go to a door that has **Dark River **written on it.

I'm not supposed to go to the door that has **Raven Falls **written on it.

I have to go to **Dark River**.

I see more doors.

They all look like they have something written on them just like the **Raven Falls **door.

I might as well just continue to walk down the hallway and find the right door.

…Doing that…right now.

…**Wonderland…**

** …The Quiet Room…**

** …Lit Candles…**

** …Poe's Poetry…**

** …W. Shakespeare…**

** …Magic Books…**

** …Super Scary Horror Stories…**

** …The Dark River…**

Oh! There it is!

"Just what I was looking for." I said to myself quietly.

I reach for the knob…and I twist it very carefully.

I exhaled.

"Come on, Beatrice." I whispered to myself. "Just open the door and follow the toon badger's directions. You've made it this far and there's no turning back. Just keep going."

I open the door.

I see the staircase.

According to the directions, I have to walk down this staircase and walk down two more.

"Okay, here I go." I said.

The first step creaked after I stepped on it.

I exhale and step on to the second…third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth…and fourteenth step.

I am now…in a strange room.

It's dark in this place…I'm hearing a running river…and it's kind of humid in here.

Now why is this place—?

Oh, duh!

I'm in a place where there's a running river and I did see a door with **The Dark River **written on it.

"The toon badger's directions did say that I have to climb into a raft and row down the river until I reach a door that has **The Histories **written on it." I said to myself out loud. "The river happens to be at the end of the second staircase. I might as well go on ahead. I can't stop now."

I held the lantern in front of me.

I gasp.

I see the river.

Despite of the mild brightness from my lantern and the reflecting glare on the top, the color of the river was pitch black. It looked like somebody dump a lot of oil into the river without thinking about any consequences and left it like that.

"The Dark River's called the 'Dark River' for a reason." I said as I walk to my left.

There's another staircase.

It looks wet.

How do I know?

The stairs look like they are covered with water drops.

I wonder if there's a hole somewhere in this place and water's leaking out of it.

Suddenly…

"WHOA!" I exclaimed.

Oh, no! I'm slipping!

Gotta…be…more…CAREFUL!

I flatten my hands…the lantern just slid down to my right shoulder…and I fall…towards the wall.

Whew!

That was close!

If I didn't do that, I probably would've slipped to the bottom of the staircase and hurt myself.

I sighed.

"I'm not going to mess around anymore." I said. "I need to get that information before the library closes!"

I carefully stand back up…and I slowly walk down the staircase.

…Just…five…four…three…two…one more…

Made it.

Now where's the—?

Oh, there it is.

Just one more staircase…

There are at least…sixteen stairs…and some of them don't look as wet as the other stairs from the other staircase.

Despite of that, I still have to be careful.

…Okay…stepping on the first…second…third…fourth…fifth…sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth…eleventh…twelfth…thirteenth…fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth step.

"Whew. I made it." I said.

And I see the raft.

Hmm, it's not exactly what I had in mind.

This raft that I see in front of me is a log raft.

It's called a 'log raft' for an obvious reason.

…Yes, it's a raft made out of logs.

But I can't get carried away with explaining the features of the log raft.

I have a "mission" to do right now.

I carefully step on to the log raft.

Whoa! It's tipping!

Without thinking, I leap on to the log raft and land on my knees.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed softly.

Then, I notice a little hook sticking out on the front part of the log raft.

Hmm, it looks like it could be useful for the lantern.

I can just hang the lantern on the hook and I can row the raft without having any complications.

I smiled to myself.

"I can even see where I'm going." I said.

I carefully stand back on my feet, pick up the lantern and slid it on to the hook.

Almost immediately, thanks to the light, I can see that I'm about to row into a long, dark, cave-like tunnel.

Then, I pick up a long stick and I use it to push the raft away from the staircase.

"Okay." I said to myself. "Now I have to row down that long tunnel until I come across a door with **The Histories **written on it."

I began to row towards the long dark tunnel.

…

***TWO MINUTES LATER***

*DRIP*

…*DRIP*

…*DRIP*

I sigh in exasperation.

"It's been two minutes of rowing for me and I don't see any doors." I said out loud.

I probably don't have enough time right now.

If I keep rowing down in this tunnel, the library's going to close and I won't be able to get out.

So I need to find the door FAST.

…Wait.

Wai—I think I see something on the left side of the tunnel.

It looks like—

Why, yes, it is!

It's a door!

YES!

But is it the door that I'm supposed to go to?

…Yes!

That's the one!  
It's the door with **The Histories **written on it!

…Hold on just a second.

I have to figure out a way to stop the log raft and reach the door.

…

***TWENTY FIVE SECONDS LATER***

"Yes, I got it!" I exclaimed after grabbing the doorknob.

I twist it and pull the door open.

Ooh! The light…from behind the door! It's burning my eyes.

I blink twice.

Almost immediately after blinking twice, my eyes quickly adjust to the bright light.

I step in to the room and close the door.

After closing the door and turning around, I gasp in shock.

"WHOA!"

This room…that I'm in right now…looks like something for _Alice in Wonderland._

Why?

On every white wall, there were several hanging bookcases that were either a completely typical rectangular shape with bizarre features or just plain bizarre bookcases without anything special to be seen.

There were also bookcases had long and short legs.

"Wow." I whispered.

I start to look for a book case with its top touching the wall.

Now where can I find a bookcase like that?

As I look around, three toon books fly off of their shelves, open up, and fly around the room like birds.

Hmm, that was strange.


	12. Chapter 12: Gathering Information

**Chapter Twelve**

**Beatrice:**

"Ah ha!" I exclaimed. "I found the bookcase!"

I ran towards the bookcase with its top touching the top of the wall.

Oh my goodness, I really want to have that bookcase.

I bet that once I graduate from college, I will have—

I can't admire that bookcase.

I have a mission to do.

I have to follow the note's instructions and get the information that I'm looking for.

…The note says that I have to follow the sign that says 'ROPE'.

What sign?

…Oh, it's hanging on to the knob of the top lower drawer of the bookcase.

It even has an arrow…which is leading me to where the rope is supposed to be.

The rope…is in…the drawer below the one with the sign hanging off of it.

I reach for the knob of the bottom drawer…and I carefully pull it open with a gentle tug.

"There's the rope." I said and took the rope out.

Now that I have the rope, I have to…open the door that's underneath the bookcase.

Okay.

According to the note, there's a hole underneath the door that's under the bookcase.

I'm going to try to open the door that's under the bookcase.

If I can't open the door, then I will have to use my telekinesis to move the bookcase and I will put it back after getting the information.

Crouching down to my knees…and down…to my belly.

Oooh, I see a handle sticking up.

I'm reaching for the handle…

I GOT IT.

I pull up the door…

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*!

"Whoa!" I exclaimed.

Then, I felt my hair getting PULLED towards the hole!

*gasp*!

The hole is acting like a vacuum cleaner!

"The rope!" I exclaimed.

I reach for the rope, began to unroll it, and slid one end of the rope into the hole.

The rope quickly slithered down into the hole as the air sucked it in.

As I watch the rope getting pulled into the hole, I start to remember what else the toon badger's note said about the rope real carefully.

…I know it had something to do with paint.

…Oh, yeah!

I have to stop the rope from getting sucked in any further as soon as I see a ring of red paint!

Then, I have to wait twenty seconds after that.

…Oh, there's the ring of paint.

I snatch on to the rope.

Immediately after snatching on to it, the air in the hole stopped acting like a vacuum.

Okay, twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one.

"Time to pull the rope back up." I mumbled.

I grunt as I began to pull on the rope.

Oh, man, it feels a little heavier.

Oh, I hope that the information that I'm getting is not too heavy.

I mean, the toon badger's note did say that a bucket was going to be tied on to the rope…but I don't want the information, if it came in the form of books, to be so heavy that they'll rip my backpack open.

…*BUHN*!

That must be the end of the rope with the bucket.

I pull the bucket towards me and I look inside of it.

…Huh.

There are…six books inside of the bucket…and they don't look too thick…or feel too heavy to put in my backpack.

Oh, and there's a note attached to the top book.

…It says:

**Nice job on finding the information here.**

** The only way for you to return to your home is really simple.**

** All you have to do is walk out of the library, walk to your right, walk towards the blue building that's close to the library, go to the alley of the blue building, look for the brick that has a white dot in the center, and push the brick in.**

Okay, now I have a way to go back home without getting lost in Toon Town.

"Thank you, mysterious and friendly stranger." I mumbled as I took the books out of the bucket and stuffed them into my backpack.

*DING*!

Oh! That must be the DING that the toon badger's note talked about.

_Oh, I better hurry before I miss the elevator. _I thought as I quickly put my backpack on.

Immediately after thinking that, an elevator door slid open NEXT TO THE BOOKCASE.

I walk into the elevator.

Hmm, the inside is kind of similar to the elevator that I had to go in with Eddie Valiant during the time when Roger Rabbit was framed for killing Marvin Acme.

Do I know how to operate an elevator like the one that I'm in right now?

Thanks to observing Droopy operating the elevator, yes.

I close the elevator door and looked at the elevator lever.

"Hmm," I said out loud, "to make the elevator go up, I have to push the lever forward…and I believe that to make the elevator stop, I have to pull the lever to the center. I think that's right."

I push the elevator lever forward…

…

***TIME SKIP***

"Did you find what you were looking for?" The toon badger asked as I walk out of the elevator with satisfaction.

"Yes, sir." I replied.

"What did you think about walking all the way down that little room?" Ratty asked.

I chuckled.

"I honestly thought it was a little strange…but then again, I thought that Toon Town is meant to be different from the human world and that's how Toon Town works." I explained.

"Well said." Ratty replied.

"I'm really glad that the Toon Patrol information came into the form of books. I thought that I was going to get the information from newspapers."

"You don't like reading stuff from newspapers?"

"Oh, no, I do like reading stuff that are on newspapers. It's just that I'm afraid that if the information of the Toon Patrol were written and published on newspapers, everything that's written may be faded or disorganized."

"Oh."

"Now that the information is written in books, I can take the time to read everything that I would like to know."

"That's nice."

"Beatrice," The toon badger said, "before Ratty and I close the library, there's something that I have to tell you."

"What is it, sir?" I asked.

"Since you're the first human to check out information of the Toon Patrol, I have to warn you that you are about to know about how hard the lives of the Toon Patrol weasels were before they formed the Toon Patrol. You also might find it hard to swallow when you get to the emotional parts of the Toon Patrol history."

"Okay. I will also try to be aware of the emotional parts."

…

***TIME SKIP***

"All right, I see the blue building that the stranger's note talked about." I said after seeing the blue building. "Now I have to look for a brick with a white dot in its center."

Now that I left the library, I better go back home or Tommy and Dad are going to wonder where I am.

_The last thing that I want is to make Dad really worried_. I thought.

I gasp in realization.

"What if Greasy starts looking for me?" I asked out.

What if he was at my house and he starts looking for me? What if Greasy, Smarty, Psycho, Wheezy, and Stupid are looking for me in Toon Town?

Oh, my gosh!

That wouldn't be good!

Oooooh, it would also be very bad if Greasy and the others discover that I'm reading some information about them!

What if Smarty and Wheezy overreact and get mad at me for reading their pasts? What if Greasy stops showing up in my room because of feeling ashamed of not telling me more about himself and his past? What if Psycho and Stupid don't want to be friends with me and Tommy anymore because of my curiosity getting the better of me? *GASSSSSSP*! What if Smarty took all of the information that I found and BURNED IT UP?!

Oh, my goodness!  
…Ugggh, what am I thinking?!

I mean, come on!

I know that Tommy and I are getting along with Greasy, Smarty, Wheezy, Psycho, and Stupid very well but I think that Tommy and I don't know them very well.

"In my personal opinion," I said to myself (like I was actually talking to someone) as I looked for the single white-dotted brick, "the best way to be friends with someone is to get to know them very well. It doesn't feel right to not know anything about that person once I'm friends with them."

It's true.

It really is.

Believe me.

…And so, I can't find the brick with the white dot in its center.

I groaned loudly in frustration.

"What if someone thought that someone was trespassing here and covered up the white dot?" I asked myself out loud. "Now how am I—? Oh, there it is!"

Ha, ha. Found it.

Now all I have to do is press the brick in.

…I push…the brick in…just as the note said.

…Nothing's happening.

I frown in confusion.

"What did I do wrong?" I asked myself.

I push the brick in even further.

…What the heck is going on?

"Is this brick thing somebody's idea of a joke?" I said out loud. "Because if this is a joke, then this isn't really funny and I'm not laughing."

Then, I shouted,

"I hope you're hearing what I'm saying! Whoever left me the note in the library and told me to come right here and push a—"

After noticing that my right shoe was untied, I put my right foot up on the wall…and the wall caved in, causing me to yell in surprise and shock and fall forward.

Wait, it's not CAVING IN.

It's SWINGING IN!

And I see my bedroom!

"Never mind about what I said!" I shouted.

I ran into my room, take off my backpack quickly, and placed it on my bed.

I sighed in satisfaction.

Finally, I'm back home…and it's almost five o'clock.

I made it!

"Beatrice?"

*GASP*!

Oh, no!

It's Dad…and I still see where I entered my room just a few seconds ago!

"Uh, yes, Dad?" I asked as I frantically used my telekinesis to shut the door that served as my exit out of Toon Town and hid my backpack under my bed.

"I'm going to run some errands right now and I'm going to pick up some pizza for dinner." Dad replied as he walked into my room.

Thank goodness that the exit is no longer visible.

"Okay, Dad." I said and made myself look like I was staring at my bedroom ceiling in thought.

"Do you want me to order a half meat-half veggie pizza?" Dad asked.

I looked at him and replied,

"Yeah, that'll be good."

"All right." Dad said with a smile. "I will be right back."

"Okay, Dad. Be careful."

After giving me a kiss on my forehead, Dad walked out of my room.

Three…two…one…

Whew! That was close!

With the help of my telekinesis, I take my backpack out from underneath my bed…and telekinetically bring it towards me.

I unzip my backpack manually and take out one of the books from the Toon Town Library.

I open the book.

"Huh?" I said in confusion.

Is that…?

Why, yes, it is.

I'm seeing…a black and white picture of…of Greasy.

Oh, my goodness.

He's not wearing his usual zoot suit, pants, and hat.

Instead, Greasy's wearing a white collared dress shirt, (probably) black pants, black sweater, and shoes with scratches on them.

Hey, remember when Greasy allowed me to see the top of his head?

Well, on that day, the top of his head was bald.

In the picture that I'm seeing right now, the top of Greasy's head is completely covered with black hair…except it's not greasy.

"Wow." I whispered.

So that's what Greasy looked like before he became a part of the Toon Patrol.

I turn the page of the book…


	13. Chapter 13: Javier Edgardo

**Chapter Thirteen**

**(Hey, y'all!**

**Since you're in for a treat, I just thought that I would let y'all know about something.**

**As y'all are reading about Greasy's past (and that goes for the other Toon Patrol members), y'all are going to notice that some sentences are written in bold text. **

**Those bold sentences are actually what Beatrice is saying while she's seeing the stuff that's happening.**

**Just wanted to let y'all know!**

**Enjoy this chapter and life as it goes!**

**-imaginarytoon1)**

**Beatrice:**

"What in the world?!" I said in confusion.

I'm expecting another page in this book…not two movie reels!

Seriously, what's going on?!

…Huh?

There's a note on the top reel.

It says,

**Dear Viewer(s),**

** What you are about to see is a collection of Greasy's memories and things that were leading up to his creation that have been copied by me, Yen Sid.**

** I had a meeting with all five members of the Toon Patrol one day and I used my magic to make copies of their memories of their pasts. After copying them, I put the memories in the form of movie reels because it's better for viewers like you to see the memories for themselves.**

** I even separated the Toon Patrol's memories and put them in separate movie reels.**

** After completing those things, I even traveled around the human world and collected some other memories that led up to the creation of the Toon Patrol weasels and added them to the reels.**

** Even though there are five members in the Toon Patrol, the sixth tape will show you how the weasels finally came together to form the Toon Patrol and became the most feared Toons in Toon Town.**

** Watch carefully.**

** -Yen Sid**

Okay, that's very interesting.

But why didn't Yen Sid put the movie reels of the Toon Patrol memories in a movie room instead of storing them into books?

…I guess I may never know.

Now that I have these movie reels, I guess I better head up to the attic and set up the movie projector and sheet (that I bought from a church garage sale).

…

***SIX MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS LATER…IN THE ATTIC***

"Okay. Now that I've got everything set up, I'm going to see what I'm about to know about Greasy." I said as I telekinetically close the attic door.

I exhale sharply and walk towards the movie projector.

_All right, let's get this thing started. _I thought.

I turn off the lights with my telekinesis…and I turn on the movie projector.

…It's working! IT'S WORKING!

I can see some captions on the movie projector sheet.

I can read them just fine.

**September 1941**, The captions say.

Oh, boy.

This is going to be really interesting.

…..

**SEPTEMBER 1941**

**TOON PATROL MEMORIES PART ONE: Greasy**

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

"_Feliz cumpleaños a ti!_

_Feliz cumpleaños a ti!_

_Feliz cumpleaños querido Javier!_

_Feliz cumpleaños a ti!_

_Cumpleaños decimonovena feliz, _Javier!"

A young man with short and shiny black hair inhaled and blew out the melted cake candles with one breath.

The man who exclaimed 'Happy Birthday' to the young boy, now known as 'Javier', clapped his hands.

"I can't believe that you're already nineteen, Javier." He said.

"I've been waiting for this day for a really long time, Father." Javier replied as he pulled the candles out of the cake. "Now that I'm nineteen, I feel like a man."

"You're already a man, Javier. You made it official by blowing out the candles."

Javier chuckled.

"I know." Javier's "father" said and chuckled a little bit. "I know that I'm getting that from my father used to tell me when I was a little kid. Just saying silly things."

"Yeah, you are." Javier replied.

Javier's "father" laughed.

"You go ahead and cut up the cake." He said after regaining his composure. "I'll get my mother."

Javier looked at his father in confusion.

"I thought that she was taking a nap." Javier said.

"She was taking a nap but five minutes ago, she was trying to get into her wheelchair." Javier's "father" replied.

Javier's eyes widened in shock.

"Why aren't you helping her?" Javier asked.

"I was trying to help my mother but she became really stubborn and insisted that she can handle getting herself into her wheel chair. 'Give me five minutes', she said to me." Javier's "father" replied.

"Well, it's already been five minutes. Right now's a good time to check on her."

"Right."

While using a giant kitchen knife to cut the small cake, Javier sighed as his "father" walked to his "mother's" room.

Even though Javier's having a good day and feeling all right, he still had some thoughts that disturbed him a little bit.

What kind of thoughts?

Thoughts about his life before he became a part of the Edgardo family and how he witnessed his "grandmother" acting very, very, very strange after bumping her head.

…..

_*FLASHBACK*_

_Before he became "Javier Edgardo", Javier was just…plain "Javier". He was a kid who was abandoned and lived on the streets. Unfortunately, there's not a single memory in Javier's mind that can help him remember anything about his biological mother or father. He can't remember their faces, their voices, or any of their natural actions or reactions that can jog his memory. Growing up as a little kid, Javier had to get things on his own and unfortunately, everything had a price. Since he didn't know that right and wrong were two different things, Javier had to steal what he wanted to have. He would steal as soon as no one no longer became aware of his presence. _

_ Did Javier get caught?_

_ Well, yeah, and that was when he was twelve and went too far._

**I saw the first part coming.**

_ When Javier was twelve (which was during the time when the Great Depression was progressing), he stole a rare thick wad of dollars from a movie director. For two days, Javier spent half of the director's money on food and nobody really suspected anything…until they realized that everyone was living in a time of slow-rising prices, job and home losses, and finding more money. Just as he was about to run away with the rest of the money, the director (who somehow found out about Javier) grabbed Javier by the wrist and started to yell out, "SOMEBODY GET THE POLICE! THIS STREET URCHIN IS STEALING FROM ME!" _

_Luckily, Javier's "father", Cortez Edgardo, happened to be watching the director and Javier while he was about to get lunch from a deli diner. He walked towards the director and stopped him._

_Little did Javier know that his life was about to change._

"Disculpe, señor?_ What's going on?" Cortez Edgardo asked with a mildly thick Spanish accent._

_The director looked at Cortez and gasped._

"_Are you…Cortez Edgardo? The underground boxer?" He asked._

_The young Javier looked at Cortez in confusion._

_He had no idea what an underground boxer was and he never knew anyone who answered to the name "Cortez Edgardo" until now._

"_The one and only." Cortez replied to the director. "Is everything all right, Mister…?"_

"_Kenneth. Archibald Kenneth is my name." The director replied. "I just caught this little street urchin with only half of my money that I earned. He stole my money two days ago and I am making sure that he will learn when the police come and take him to jail. I will also make sure that I get my money back."_

"_How much money did he spend?" _

"_At least ten dollars."_

"_Ten dollars, huh? Well, I happen to have ten dollars with me right now."_

_Javier gasped in shock._

**Oh, my gosh!**

"_What?!" Archibald Kenneth exclaimed. "But he's the one—!"_

"_And I will make sure that the young boy will learn about stealing." Cortez replied, interrupting the director. "I am going to teach him a lesson and help him learn the difference between right and wrong."_

_Javier clenched his jaw in nervous._

_Even though he didn't know what an underground boxer can do to a person like him, he had a feeling that it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience._

_He even felt suspicious about Cortez._

_But the feeling of suspicion almost immediately faded when Cortez pulled out ten one-dollar bills from his left pants pocket and gave them to Archibald Kenneth._

_So yes, Cortez was telling the truth._

"_Well, thank you, Cortez Edgardo." Archibald Kenneth said after releasing Javier and snatching the money. "The little street urchin is off the hook because of you. I expect you to teach it a lesson."_

"_Hey, please stop talking about him like that." Cortez replied. "The kid is a human being, not an object."_

**Ooooooooh.**

_Archibald Kenneth put his hands up in defense and then, he turned around and left with the money._

_Javier just watched him with surprise._

…..

Javier never forgot about the day when Cortez allowed him to live with him. Cortez also gave him a job at the underground boxing arena that he goes to every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

As soon as he moved into and was introduced to Cortez's mother, Juana Edgardo, Javier felt accepted. He no longer felt like he was labeled as a pest.

**Huh! That's good.**

"Hmm, good time." Javier mumbled as he chopped Juana's slice of cake into tiny pieces.

But the time when Juana changed three days after bumping her head really hard was also something that Javier would NEVER forget.

…..

_*FLASHBACK*_

_ Three weeks after Javier turned thirteen, Juana turned seventy._

_ Two years after Juana turned seventy, her mood and personality began to change._

**Oh, this should be interesting.**

_ Before changing, Juana was always in a good mood and she always had the time to help a person out._

**Okay, why does Yen Sid sound like my dad when he was describing what Mom was like before Tommy and I were born?**

_As Juana changed, she started grow more defensive and crazy._

_ She even began to experience delusions._

**Okay, I take back on what I said earlier. Now I have a feeling that Juana might have Alzheimer's disease in its moderate stage.**

_Then, Juana changed completely after bumping her head._

_ Javier was just cleaning Juana's room and Juana walked in and started to act really crazy. She shouted at Javier like he was trespasser and started throwing things that she was able to reach like a small vase, a small bar of soap, and a tin bucket._

** Oh, my.**

_When Juana had to get some things that were on a shelf, she jumped up…and that's when she hit her head._

_ Juana bumped her head so hard that she fell unconscious and had to be taken to a hospital._

_ Immediately after she came to, Juana kind of reverted back to her old self—_

…_.._

**Beatrice:**

"Beatrice!" Tommy shouted from below the attic. "Dad's here with the pizza!"

I gasp.

"Uh oh!" I whispered and stopped the movie projector.

Then, I telekinetically open the attic door a little bit, quickly walk towards it, and I shouted,

"Okay. I'm coming!"

I quickly walk back to the movie projector.

Yep, it's not playing the 'movie'.

I sigh.

"I might as well get some pizza." I said to myself. "Then, I'm going to take a shower and come right back up here."


	14. Chapter 14: Juana's Fading Memories

**Chapter Fourteen**

***9:32:49 PM***

**Beatrice:**

"_When these deadly women…" _The narrator of _Deadly Women _narrated on the living room television. "_...got angry…they hit back."_

Dad yawned as he walked into the living room.

"Well, Beatrice," He said, "I'm going to go to sleep. I have to get plenty of sleep so that I can write the chapters for my book."

"Okay, Daddy." I replied. "I'm going…I'm going to stay up a little bit and I'll go to sleep."

Dad bent down, kissed me on my forehead, and patted his callused hand on my damp-haired head.

"Good night, Beatrice." He said.

I kiss him on the cheek.

"Good night, Daddy." I replied.

Then, Dad turned to the hallway that led to his room.

I quickly make myself look like I was watching _Deadly Women_ on the television as I start to wait for the right moment to walk out of the living room and use my telekinesis a little bit as I make my way to the attic and watch more of Greasy's history.

"Three…" I whispered to myself. "…two…two and a half…two and a quarter…and…ONE."

I pick up the television remote, press the POWER button, threw it back down on the couch as the television was turning off, and made the time to run towards the attic door.

I look back to see if Dad's behind me.

Nope. The coast is clear.

I immediately stop running and I look up to the attic door.

With the help of my telekinetic power, I carefully pull the attic door down.

"…Perfect." I whispered.

_I think Tommy's spending some time reading one of my books. _I thought as I glance at Tommy's closed bedroom door for a brief second. _That should give me plenty of time to watch Greasy's history until it's time for me to go to sleep._

"All right." I say to myself after looking at the opened attic door. "Let's see if I can still use telekinetic flight to levitate myself into the attic."

I inhale deeply…and I began to hear the sound of an electrical hum in my head.

_Even though the other feelings that you had to experience while your telekinesis was developing are gone, _Yen Sid's voice echoed in my head after remembering about a lesson that he had to teach me three weeks before school ended, _your ability to combine telekinesis and flight is still developing, Beatrice. In order for that ability to develop, you have to keep practicing. As you practice, you will hear the sound of an electrical hum in head. But after a lot of practice and possibly the longer you stay in the air, the electrical hum will go away._

I exhale and I began to concentrate on combining telekinesis and flight together.

…The electrical humming's growing louder.

…It's still growing louder.

…Oh! My feet are not touching the carpet!

_In the process of telekinetic flight, use your mind, feet, and hands. _Yen Sid's voice echoed in my head again. _Don't use all three at the same time. Use your mind mainly to activate the power and for a little kick, use your hands. You will use your feet too once the power is fully developed._

"Okay." I say to myself. "Point your index fingers at the floor…and slowly aim the palms of my hands at the floor while concentrating on moving upwards. Keep your feet flat at all times until the power of telekinetic flight is fully developed."

I point my index fingers at the floor…and slowly aimed my palms at the floor carefully while concentrating on moving upwards.

"Once you're ready, which I am, aim your eyes in the direction where you want to go."

I look at the gap of the opened attic door and I immediately felt the upper half of my body tilting downwards a little bit. Then, I felt myself flying into the attic…without getting rammed into anything.

Yes! I'm doing good!

I got it!

...I land on the attic floor with a small THUD.

I…almost got it.

But still, I did a pretty good job.

"Yeah." I say to myself. "A little more practice and I think that I'll get it."

I look at the attic door and I telekinetically pull it upwards, closing it.

"All right." I said. "Let's watch Greasy's history."

I use my telekinesis to start the movie projector back up and play the part where I had to stop it…

…..

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

_*FLASHBACK*_

—_but went downhill a few days later._

_Juana began to experience increasing rounds of memory loss, confusion, and misplacing things. Her personality changed completely after Cortez and Javier noticed that she no longer decided to try new things and Juana stopped doing her daily routine._

_A week after noticing all of those things, a doctor diagnosed Juana with Alzheimer's disease._

***gasp*! I knew it!**

_She later had to move in with Cortez and Javier so that they would keep an eye on her and made sure that she wouldn't do anything terrible._

…..

"Oh, Grandma." Javier mumbled to himself.

_"¿Por qué es ese pastel tan pequeño?!_"

Javier jerked his head around and watched his "father" push his "grandmother" into the living room as she held the sides of the wheelchair with a tight grip.

"_Madre_," Cortez replied gently, "_el pastel es pequeño porque hay una escasez de muchas cosas, incluso cosas que se supone que deberá efectuarse para un pastel_."

_"¿En serio?_" Juana asked. _"¿El pastel de aumentar de tamaño una vez de vuelta de todo a la normalidad?_"

"_Sí, madre_."

Cortez looked at Javier as he pushed Juana to the table.

"Javier, once again, I'm very sorry that the cake's so small." He said.

"Father, you don't need to apologize." Javier replied as he handed Cortez his slice of cake. "I understand that we're in a war and that we're experiencing some food rationing. I'm not upset at all."

Juana frowned at her chopped cake slice.

_"¿Por qué mi rebanada picado mientras que las otras dos rebanadas no son como los míos?_" She exclaimed angrily.

Javier placed Juana's slice of cake in front of her and replied gently,

"_Abuela, ya lo hemos hablado muchas veces. Tienes que tener tu comida cortada en trozos pequeños por lo que será más fácil para que usted pueda masticar y tragar_."

"You might want to go on ahead and turn on the radio." Cortez said to Javier in a quiet voice. "You know that she's not going to eat anything if the radio's not on."

Javier nodded and made his way to the radio that was sitting on the living room window's windowsill.

"_And now, Tommy Dorsey's _Boogie Woogie._" _The radio announcer announced on the radio.

As the music began to play, Cortez picked up a fork, stabbed it into one of the tiny cake pieces, and carefully brought it up to Juana's mouth. Juana opened her mouth obediently and allowed Cortez to put the piece of cake in her mouth carefully.

Cortez smiled when he saw Juana chew on the cake without complaining, whining, and/or blurting out things that weren't necessary or inappropriate to say.

"_Esta torta es muy bueno. ¿Qué tipo es?_" Juana said as she chewed on the piece of cake.

"_Es un_ _pastel de guerra, abuela_." Javier replied.

"_Una torta de la guerra? ¿Qué hay en un pastel de guerra?"_

"_Las pasas, la canela y las nueces_." Cortez replied.

Juana swallowed.

Javier carefully took a bite of his cake as he watch Cortez give Juana another piece.

After swallowing, Javier asked Cortez,

"How's the drawing going, father?"

"It's almost done." Cortez replied. "I just need to add some paint and it'll be done."

**Hmm. Cortez is an underground boxer and an artist. Interesting.**

"_¿Qué va a hacer?_" Juana asked.

"_Mi dibujo que he estado trabajando durante algún tiempo_." Cortez replied.

"_¿Es usted dibuja_?"

"_Sí, madre. He estado dibujando desde hace mucho tiempo. ¿Recuerdas el dibujo de sus flores amarillas favoritas que te di_?"

"_Cuando me diste ese dibujo?_"

"_Yo tenía catorce años_."

"_¿En serio? Bueno, ¿por qué me olvidé de eso_?"

Hearing that made Javier feel a little sad.

He knows that no one should be sad on their birthday but hearing Juana and Cortez talk about the things that Juana was forgetting made Javier feel sad and terrible.

"Javier?"

Javier looked at Cortez who just snapped him out of his thoughts.

"_¿Estás bien?_ Are you okay?" Cortez asked.

Javier nodded.

"_Sí_, I'm okay." He replied. "I was just…staring out into space."

"Oh, okay." Cortez said and went back to feeding Juana some more Javier's cake.

…..

When it got really late in the nighttime hours, Javier stared at his bedroom ceiling in thought.

He started to think about what Juana and Cortez were talking about while they were eating some cake.

_"¿Podría ser verdad?_" Javier whispered to himself. "Is it really true that my grandmother is losing a lot of good memories of father, herself, and me? I don't want her to forget about me. I want my grandmother to remember me until the day she dies."

Javier sighed.

Then, he started to think about Cortez's drawing.

"I wonder what father is drawing this time." He said. "I hope it's something besides a toon dog or a dancing toon flower."

Javier chuckled.

He remembered the time when he wandered around Cortez's study and he looked at a stack of papers that had a ton of really good drawings of Toons. One of the drawings that Javier liked was a drawing of a shiny red toon ball bouncing across the paper.

After seeing the drawings, Javier carefully observed Cortez and how he would draw certain things. When the time of observing's done for Javier, he would leave Cortez and try to imitate the way Cortez would draw.

Suddenly, something came to Javier.

"I know what I would like to do when I go to college and get a job." He whispered. "I can draw pictures for a living! Oh, yes! That's what I would like to do! I can just do nothing but draw until it's time for me to go to sleep! Oh, my goodness! That sounds great! Since I don't have to work tomorrow, I can spend a lot time drawing. But what should I draw? Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll come up with something tomorrow morning after breakfast."


	15. Chapter 15: Two Days Later

**Chapter Fifteen**

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

Two days after his birthday, Javier was in his room, trying to draw a toon version of himself, when Cortez was slammed the front door of the house really hard.

Javier walked out of his room and watched Cortez in confusion.

"Father?" Javier asked in a concerned voice. "Where have you been? Is everything all right?"

"_Esa mujer!_" Cortez muttered. "_ESA MUJER!" _

Javier flinched after hearing Cortez exclaim angrily.

Then, Cortez stomped to his refrigerator, pulled open the refrigerator door, grabbed a bottle of Coca Cola, slammed the refrigerator door, unscrewed the bottle cap, and chugged down the Coca Cola without stopping.

**Oh, my goodness! He's going to get the hiccups!**

Javier watched all of that with shock.

He had never seen Cortez act like that in a long time.

"FATHER! _Reduzca la velocidad, por favor!" _Javier exclaimed.

As Cortez slammed the Coca Cola bottle down on the counter, Javier ran towards him with concern and led him

"_Es culpa de la Madre! Es culpa de la madre que Daria me está dejando_!" Cortez exclaimed angrily.

"Daria?" Javier asked. "The woman who you were planning to marry?"

"Yes, Javier."

"Why is she leaving you?

"Daria's leaving me because of my mother."

"What did Grandma do?"

"Remember that _loco juego de adivinanzas_ that my mother came up almost a year ago?"

"What game are you talking about, father?"

"You remember when I brought Daria over to introduce her to you and Mother?"

"Sort of."

"Well, Mother interrupted me just as I was about to introduce Daria and shouted, 'Don't tell me your name your name, _muchacha! _Give me year to guess what your name is. If I guess the right name, then you'll be married to my son. If I don't—"

"It's okay, father, I remember."

Cortez groaned as he sat down on the couch.

"If only Mother didn't change, she wouldn't have created that guessing game and Daria and I would be married. I thought that I picked the right woman to serve as a mother figure to you…but I was wrong."

Javier patted Cortez on the back.

"Father, it's okay. Don't blame yourself." Javier said.

"I HAVE TO BLAME MYSELF, JAVIER!" Cortez exclaimed, making Javier flinch. "DARIA LEFT ME BECAUSE OF _MY MOTHER _and SHE DOESN'T WANT TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH _ME OR MY MOTHER WHO ACTS LIKE EVERYONE IS OUT TO ATTACK HER!"_

"It's not Grandmother's fault that she's acting crazy and being forgetful. She didn't choose to be that way and it's something in life that made Grandmother act crazy and increasingly forgetful."

**Amen to that, Javier.**

Cortez sighed.

Then, he said,

"I'm going to get me another Coca Cola."

Javier groaned in frustration.

"Father, don't get another Coca Cola." He said as Cortez got up and walked to the refrigerator. "You know what happens if you drink too much of Coca Cola. It makes you have trouble falling asleep and you get hiccups."

"I don't care!" Cortez exclaimed. "I want to forget about Daria! I don't want to remember her anymore!"

**Oh, my goodness.**

"Father!"

"And you better get ready for work in fifteen minutes or you'll be late. I will be in my study for the rest of the day. Don't worry about me. I can handle my problems on my own."  
Javier sighed in frustration.

…..

***TIME SKIP* **

***9:30 PM***

*WHOO*!

"YEAH! GET 'IM! GET 'IM!"

"GIVE 'IM AN UPPERCUT! GIVE 'IM A JAB! GIVE 'IM SOMETHING!"

*CRASH*!

"JAVIER! GET OVER HERE AND PICK UP THIS BIG PILE OF DISHES ON THIS TABLE!"

"Yes, sir! Sorry, Mr. Crandall!"

The action that was happening in the underground boxing ring increased as Javier walked over to the table that had a tall tower of plates.

This place that Javier worked at was underneath an abandoned warehouse that was eighteen minutes from where Cortez lived. The warehouse used to be a popular bar but when the Prohibition started, everything had to be moved down to the basement level…and a boxing ring was built some time later.

**Interesting.**

Because of the amount of money that a boxer can get (depending on how good a boxer can fight), the boxing ring attracted a lot of out-of-work boxers, especially Cortez.

Whenever a boxer would make it official that he was going to fight another boxer, they would have a big audience watching as they ate, drink their cold beverages, and/or play poker.

"Who knew that three men can eat and drink so much?" Javier mumbled as he began to put the dishes in his black bus tub that he used to collect the dishes.

For employees like Javier, those who had to clean tables, mop floors, gather up and wash dishes, and pick up the trash, even a simple task can be a challenge on most days and nights. Whenever a fight is happening, a lot of individuals (usually a lot of men and a couple of women) gather around the ring and watch the boxers fight until one boxer is left standing. Whenever a fight happens, the people who watch the boxers have a tendency to get really, really rowdy.

**Why am I not surprised? A lot of my family members on my mom and dad's side act like that whenever they watch the Super Bowl football games.**

It's like that every time for Javier as soon as he steps into the basement level of warehouse.

"Time to get these dishes washed." Javier mumbled to himself as he placed the remaining dishes in a black bus tub that he used to collect the dirty dishes and silverware.

All of the sudden, a glass bottle flew right in front of Javier and hit the wall on his left, smashing and flying into many pieces.

Javier sighed in frustration and bent down to pick up the pieces of glass.

"Don't worry, Javier, I got it!" A voice from one side of the boxing ring shouted.

As Javier collected more of the remaining dishes on the table, a boy about his age walked over to the table, bent down, and began to pick up the bits of the broken bottle.

Javier smiled.

"Thanks, Stuart." He said.

"No problem." Stuart replied.

"Who's about to win the fight?"

"It looks like 'Ham Bone' Henderson is about to win…but I don't think 'Top Gun' Johnson is going to allow that. 'Top Gun' had a pretty good start but he started to get beat up real quickly."

"I guess today's not a good day for 'Top Gun', Stuart."

"Yeah."

Stuart picked up the last broken piece of glass and followed Javier to the kitchen.

As the two young boys walked towards the kitchen, they had to duck their heads to avoid any objects that were accidentally thrown back for probably no reason.

The noise immediately ceased when Javier and Stuart walked into the kitchen.

"Much better." Stuart said.

"Yeah." Javier replied, completely agreeing with Stuart. "This is the only part of the basement level that's quiet during the late night hours."

"It's also a good thing that there are two kitchens, this one and the other one. I'm so thankful that this kitchen is the quiet part."

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

"Do you want me to help you with the dishes?" Stuart asked.

"Sure. I'll help after I put the pieces of glass away. Do you want to listen to the radio as we wash the dishes?" Javier asked back.

"Yeah."

After Stuart disposed the glass pieces, he turned on the radio while Javier began to run the cold water from the sink.

After a brief moment of static, a radio announcer announced,

"_Enjoying your evening so far?"_

"Yes." Javier and Stuart answered in unison, as if they were having a brief conversation with the radio announcer.

"_Well, enjoy the evening even more with The Ink Spots' _Whispering Grass."

The sound of someone strumming the guitar in the radio immediately made Javier and Stuart feel really relaxed as they placed the plates in the cold water one by one. They even added the forks, knives, and glass mugs.

"_Why do you whisper, green grass?_

_ Why tell the trees what ain't so?"_

"How's Cortez doing, Javier?" Stuart asked as he grabbed a fork and started to wash it.

"He's okay." Javier lied, not wanting to talk about how Cortez was acting before leaving to go to work.

"Yeah? Has he been drawing anything lately?"

"The last time I checked, he was drawing something that looked like a toon version of the Invisible Man."

"Wow, that's neat."

After Stuart dried one of the wet plates and placed it on a counter, Javier asked him as he was washing a mug,

"How's your family, Stuart?"

"My mother's doing fine but my dad is still recovering from his head injury. Some Toon accidently dropped a watering can on his head from a second floor window."

"Ouch."

"At least my dad didn't a concussion and only received—"

Suddenly, the radio announcer said, interrupting Stuart,

"_Please pardon for the interruption, ladies and gentlemen but we have recently just received a message from a Disney employee."_

"Well, this should be interesting." Javier mumbled and looked at the radio with Stuart.

"_Walt Disney's newest project, _The Wind in the Willows, _is currently facing a brief pause, due to not having enough toon weasels that are needed for a few scenes and to serve as understudies. There aren't a lot of Toon Creators because a lot of them are drafted in the military. So Disney needs help from every individual who can draw Toons. If you or someone that you know happens to be very good at drawing Toons, go to your nearest radio station for auditions slips tomorrow around 3:30 in the afternoon. A small sum of money will be given to those who have a part given to their toon weasel. You will have two weeks to have your toon weasel completed and ready for the auditions."_

Javier smiled.

What he just heard sounded like someone just gave him opportunity to use his drawing skills.

Maybe this audition is the opportunity to use his drawing skills to create the most perfect toon weasel that anyone has ever seen and give Cortez the money that he earned.

This was just too perfect for Javier.


	16. Chapter 16: Tommy's Confession

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Beatrice:**

As soon as Yen Sid was about to narrate more about Javier coming up with an idea, I started to yawn in exhaustion.

"Oh, man." I said sleepily. "I better get ready to go to bed."

I use my telekinesis to stop the movie projector…and open the attic door.

_Should I practice using my telekinetic flight again? _I thought.

I inhale deeply…and I began to hear the sound of an electric hum in my head.

Then, I shook my head…and the electrical hum stopped humming in my head almost immediately.

"Nah, that'll have to wait." I said to myself.

…

***TIME SKIP***

"There you go." I said to myself after putting my dog tag on my night stand.

Then, I turn to my bookshelf and grabbed Robert Louis Stevenson's _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories._

…After getting under the covers, I open up the book and began to read with my tired eyes.

_Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged appearance that was never lighted by a smile… _I narrated in my head_…cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and somewhat loveable…_

*dun-dun-dun*

Who could that be? Who's knocking on my closed bedroom door?

"Hello?" I said after looking up from my book. "Who is it?"

"It's Tommy. There's something that I have to tell you. May I come in?"

"Come on in, Tommy."

I listen to Tommy opening and closing the door as I close my book and set it on my night stand.

"Reading?" Tommy asked as he sat down next to me.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Let me guess. You were reading _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories."_

I blink twice in surprise.

I can't believe Tommy guessed the right answer the first time.

This isn't like him at all.

I mean, whenever he guesses the book that I'm reading, it takes one or two more times to guess the right answer. Now…Tommy just guessed the right answer the first time.

What is going on with him?

"How did you know that I was reading _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories?" _I asked Tommy.

"I read your mind." He replied.

"You what?"

"Read your mind."

"You're joking, right?"

"No, I'm not. I literally heard you reading the description of Mr. Utterson in your head."

I felt my eyes widening up.

_Okay, this is getting a little strange. _I thought. _If Tommy is telling me the truth about him reading my mind, I might as well have to think about interesting facts about Michael Jackson and Tim Burton and ask Tommy what I'm—_

"I know what you're thinking, Beatrice, and don't even try." Tommy said. "I know that you're thinking about interesting facts about Michael Jackson and Tim Burton and asking me what you're thinking in order to test me."

I felt my eyes widening up again in surprise.

"Wow, you're good." I said.

"And I even know about your telekinesis." Tommy replied.

"Did Greasy tell you or did you read my thoughts?"

"Yes, I read your thoughts and no, Greasy didn't tell me. Yen Sid told me about a week ago while I was telling him about my mind powers."

"Mind powers?" I asked. "Are you saying that you also have telekinesis?"

"Yes, but a very small amount of it. I have three mind powers."

"Three mind powers? Telekinesis, telepathy, and…what else?"

"This is something that you probably have never heard before. My third mind power is oneiric cognition."

I open my mouth to say what I'm about to say but I pause.

Then, I decide to try again.

"I've never heard of oneiric cognition." I said. "What is that?"

"Oneiric cognition is the ability to discern and instantly understand dreams of other beings." Tommy replied.

I gasp.

"THAT would explain how you knew the meaning of my dream!" I exclaimed softly.

"Yen Sid also told me to tell you that you have a one hundred percent telekinetic mind." Tommy said. "I have seven percent telekinesis, ninety percent telepathy, and three percent oneiric cognition."

"But why do you have a small amount of telekinesis, Tommy?"

"Yen Sid told me about the Sleepwalking Incident and how Greasy unintentionally gave you your telekinetic power. He even told me that your telekinesis slowly developed after you woke up. While I was visiting him, Yen Sid detected telekinesis in my brain and started to ask me questions. After telling him about some strange feelings that I felt when my telekinesis, I even told Yen Sid about more strange things that I had to experience after I returned from my peach-sailing adventure with James and the bugs."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told Yen Sid that when I'm with someone else, I start to hear their voice in my head and I can see that their mouth's not moving. If I'm around too many people in one room, I can hear all of their thoughts and I get really exhausted and feel faint. There were even times when I would feel another person's emotions and experience their pain."

"What about the oneiric cognition?"

"I'm getting to that."

"Okay, sorry."

"When I was studying for a chemistry test one day at school, this girl named Rhonda Ozarks had an older brother named Scotty who died in a horrible car accident before she was born and she was having dreams about him just two weeks before her eighteenth birthday. Rhonda was dreaming about her brother's final few minutes on the day of his death and she didn't know that she had a brother until I told her the meaning of her dream. When Rhonda was telling me about her dream, I imagined everything and I felt a ventriloquist dummy saying the puppeteer's words as I told Rhonda the meaning of her dream of her brother."

"Wow."

"When I told Yen Sid what I just told you, he took out this toon skull and started to wave his hands and wiggle his fingers, making the inside of the skull glow. After waiting for two minutes, the skull stopped glowing and Yen Sid looked at me. Then, he told me that I had three mind powers and I had to see him every day in the afternoon and evening hours so that he can help me with my telepathy and oneiric cognition until I have full control."

"What about the telekinesis? Am I supposed to be the one to help you control your telekinesis?"

"Yes, since you're the more experienced person and you have more control with your telekinesis."

I nod my head in understanding.

"Okay." I said.

"I would've told you about my three mind powers while we were eating with Dad but I didn't want to sound crazy to him." Tommy replied. "I decided to talk to you about the powers as soon as Dad was sound asleep."

"I don't like keeping secrets from Dad. It feels wrong."

"I know. I don't like to do that either but we have to tell him when the time is right."

"I almost told Cressida about my telekinetic powers one time but I couldn't. I was afraid that she'll stop being friends with me."

"We will tell Cressida and Penny about our powers but we will have to wait until we both feel like it's the right time."

I nod my head.

"Right." I said.

Pause.

"Thanks for letting me talk to you, Beatrice." Tommy said.

"No problem." I replied as Tommy got off my bed.

"Oh, and don't worry about Greasy and the others. I will make sure that they don't know about you doing research on their pasts."

I chuckle.

"You just read my mind." I said.

Then, Tommy began to laugh.


	17. Chapter 17: Brooms and Drawing Step One

**Chapter Seventeen**

***9:34:12 am***

**Beatrice:**

*hmmmm*

*hmmmm*

I look down at my phone as I chew on my scrambled eggs.

"Hmm, a text from Cressida." I mumbled to myself.

I unlock my phone and press my index finger on the text messages tab.

Cressida just said:

**Meet me at the Blue Jay.**

Hmm. This looks like a—

Oh, Cressida just sent me another text.

**It's very important.**

Huh! I wonder what Cressida wants to tell that's very important.

I text back:

**Okay. What time do I have to meet you at the Blue Jay? Is everything all right?**

"Send." I mumbled to myself.

I pick up my fork and scoop up another bit of scrambled eggs.

Mmm, delicious.

*hmmmm*

*hmmmm*

The text says:

**Meet me at the Blue Jay around twelve-fifteen and yes, everything is okay.**

I text back:

**All right. See you at the Blue Jay.**

…

***12:50:10 pm***

After swallowing a small bite of my grilled chicken, spinach, and pesto pizza with a big sip of Dr. Pepper, I ask Cressida,

"So what is it that you wanted to talk about?"

Cressida (dressed in a black tank top, skater skirt with vertical black and white stripes, and black flip flops) immediately looked up from her plate of Philadelphia roll sushi with a look of confusion.

"What are you talking about?" She asked.

"You told me in your text that you had something important to talk about while we're eating our lunch." I replied.

"Oh, oh, oh, yeah! Now I remember! Sorry, I almost forgot."

"It's all right, Cressida."

Then, in a voice that was barely heard by other customers in the restaurant but clearly heard by me, Cressida said,

"Okay, two things. Let me tell you the first thing. Yen Sid came over to my house this morning around eight thirty or so and he gave me a wrapped package and a message."

"What was in the package?" I asked in a soft voice.

"A broomstick."

"A broomstick?"

Cressida nodded her head as she sipped a little bit of her Sprite.

"It's not an ordinary broomstick." She said after swallowing. "It's a witch's broomstick."

"Why would Yen Sid give you a witch's broomstick?" I asked.

"He gave me a witch's broomstick because of two reasons. One, when girls like you, me, and Penny—you know, people with the gift to see, hear, and talk to Toons—turn eighteen, they are given a witch's broomstick."

"What's the second reason?"

Cressida grabbed her little black, red, and white flannel wallet and took out…a sheet of crinkled paper.

"This message that Yen Sid gave me says everything about my second reason." Cressida replied and handed me the paper.

I carefully read the message that's written on the paper.

**This is a witch's broomstick.**

**Once a girl with the gift to see, hear, and talk to Toons turns eighteen, she is given a witch's broom.**

**This broomstick serves as a companion and mode of transportation.**

**Warning: The broomstick can be stubborn and it is alive. It takes more than one try to make the broomstick behave and follow your orders.**

**PS: Cressida, do not practice flying with the broom until Beatrice gets her broomstick. Tell Beatrice that as soon as she gets her broomstick on her eighteenth birthday, you two will have to practice learning how to fly with your broomsticks with another witch.**

"This is very interesting." I said. "I'm getting a broomstick on my birthday…and we're going to practice flying with a broomstick with another witch. Now I've added something to do on my summer to-do list."

"When is your birthday?" Cressida asked as she was about to put a piece of sushi in her mouth.

"The twenty-third of July."

"Okay, that's not so bad. Shouldn't take too long."

I watch Cressida add a little bit of soy sauce on her sushi as I took a bite of my pizza.

Then, Cressida placed the bottle of soy sauce back its original place, grabbed one of the pieces of sushi, and placed it in her mouth.

"So how's your Toon Patrol mystery going?" Cressida asked as she chewed on her sushi. "Find out about anything?"

"I was just looking up some information about Greasy and I found out that the person who created him was a nineteen year old boy " I replied. "Plus, somebody left me a note in my room and somehow they found about me wanting to know more about the Toon Patrol."

"What did they say on the note?"

"They told me that I was in luck and I should go to the Toon Town Library. The person who gave me the note told me that the Toon Town Library contained all of the information that can help me know the history of the Toon Patrol."

"Did you find the information?"

"Yes and I found six movie reels in six different books."

"Why were there movie reels in books?"

"Yen Sid had a meeting with Greasy, Wheezy, and the others one day and he managed to copy their memories and the memories of those individuals who created them. After copying the memories, Yen Sid transformed them into the form of movie reels because he said in another note that it's better for a viewer to see the memories for themselves. Why put the movie reels in books? I have no idea and I may never know."

Cressida nodded her head as she took a sip of her drink.

"But that's not all." I continued as Cressida swallowed her drink. "When I opened a book that had Greasy's memories in it, I found a picture of Greasy before he became a member of the Toon Patrol. Don't tell anyone, not even Greasy, that I told you this but Greasy looked really…handsome in that picture."

"What did Greasy look like in the picture?" Cressida asked.

"He was wearing a white-collared dress shirt, black pants, black sweater, and shoes with scratches on them. Greasy's hair wasn't as greasy as it is right now and he even had hair covering the top of his head."

"Oh, come on, Beatrice. Most humans and Toons have hair covering the tops of their heads."

"Not all Toons have hair on the tops of their heads. Have you ever seen Greasy without his zoot hat, Cressida?"

"Not that I can recall. I might've seen him without his zoot hat during our gym period at Zelkova but I can't remember."

"Well, one day in my room, Greasy showed me the top of his head one time and it didn't have any hair covering it. Believe me, he didn't want to take his hat off because he looked ashamed to do it."

Then, as I open up my photos library in my phone, Cressida asked,

"Why was Greasy looking ashamed to take his hat off?"

"He thinks that he looks like a thirty year old man with the top of his head being bald." I replied as I looked for the picture of Greasy before he became a member of the Toon Patrol.

"Really? Whoa."

"If Greasy was thirty, then going bald isn't bad because it's natural for a man."

"Wait a minute. Did you use the word 'was'?"

"Yeah."

Dang it! Where is that picture?!

"Are you saying that Greasy used to be thirty?" Cressida asked.

"Uh, no." I replied. "Greasy's not thirty or even close to being that age."

"What?!"

"Greasy's not thirty. He told me that he was nineteen and a half."

"Nineteen and a half? How can a nineteen and a half year old toon weasel experience balding?"

"I don't know, Cressida. That's what I'm trying to figure out. I'm starting to think that the balding didn't happen naturally. Somebody or something in Greasy's life might've caused the unnatural balding."

AH HA! Found the picture.

"I took a picture of Greasy before he became a part of the Toon Patrol and I thought about showing it to you." I said and handed Cressida my phone. "Just don't tell anybody that I found this picture of Greasy."

After a literal brief second, Cressida said,

"Wow. You're right about Greasy. He does look handsome."

"I'm not saying that because I have a crush on Greasy." I replied. "I only like him as a friend."

"Relax, Beatrice, I'm not going to tease you. I'm going to respect your idea of just staying friends with Greasy."

I smiled.

"Thank you, Cressida."

…

***8:45:16 pm***

"All right, Greasy's history, let's see what Javier is about to do now." I said as I play the movie reel.

_This is so exciting! _I thought. _I'm going to see how a Toon is created._

"_Javier did not waste any time to start creating his Toon." _Yen Sid's narration voice said. "_It wasn't until the next day…"_

…..

**Yen Sid's Narration Voice:**

…when Javier gathered up all of the things that Toon Creators use when making Toons. He had gathered up a lot of his money that he earned while working at Cortez's underground boxing ring and bought paper, paint brushes, acrylic paint, pencils, a celluloid sheet, and black pens.

As Javier walked to his room with everything that he needed to make a Toon, Juana watched him in curiosity with sleepy eyes. She kept her eyes on the determined young man until he disappeared into his room and quietly closed his bedroom door.

Javier turned on his bedroom lights and picked up several sheets of paper, a pencil, and a black pen. He carried those things to his desk and sat down after putting them down.

After sighing, Javier said to himself, as if he was talking to somebody else at this very moment,

"Okay, before I start drawing my toon weasel, I have to remember the typical struggles of drawing a Toon, thanks to my time of observing Cortez drawing cartoons and toon beings. I have to keep in mind that ideas and inspirations do not come to the minds of human beings easily."

**Yeah, you can say that again.**

"Most of the time, it takes a long time to come up with an idea of what a Toon should like, wear, and how it should behave. I doubt that I'm going to stick with the first thing that pops into my head. A lot of ideas will come to my mind…probably if I don't like the first design of my toon weasel. All right. _Vamos a empezar_."

Javier picked up his pencil and drew a small horizontal line on the sheet of paper…


	18. Chapter 18: Javier's Frustration

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Yen Sid's Narration Voice:**

...but immediately stopped.

"I just realized that it's been a while since I've seen a picture of a weasel." Javier said. "That was really stupid of me to start drawing before realizing that it's been a while since I've seen a weasel. Whenever Cortez had a problem drawing a toon animal, he would go out and study a real life animal's physical appearance and movement so that he can get some ideas. That's what I should do for my toon weasel."

**That's smart and clever. You're thinking like a Disney animator.**

"But where can I find a weasel? Are there any weasels in California? I have no idea."

**You can find weasels in almost every part of the United States. And yes, you can find them in California, according to one resource.**

"Maybe I can go to the zoo and see if…No, no. I'm not going to do that. I don't like going to the zoo. Hmm, what should I do and where should I go?"

Javier thought hard.

Seconds have passed…then, minutes have passed…and eventually, two hours have passed.

Then, Cortez walked into the room.

"What are you doing, Javier?" He asked.

"I'm trying to draw a toon weasel…for a movie…because I heard that there's currently a shortage of toon weasels for a movie." Javier replied. "Unfortunately, I'm stuck because I don't know where to start and I don't remember what a weasel looks like."

Cortez walked towards Javier's desk and looked at the sheet of paper that had the horizontal line drawn on it.

After chuckling in his head, Cortez said,

"Try going to the library, Javier. I think that there may be a book that contains a lot of information about weasels."

"Are you sure?" Javier asked.

"The book may or may not be at the library but it's probably best if you go on ahead and go to the library."

Despite of not liking the library very much, Javier immediately walked out of his room and made his way to the library, feeling very determined about getting his drawing done.

**Hmm.**

As soon as Javier walked into the library, he did not waste a single bit of time to find that book. But unfortunately, the search for the book took a little longer than Javier expected.

Javier looked up…and down…and left…and right…until finally, he found the book that he was looking for. He took it off the shelf and flipped through the pages.

"Hmm, interesting." Javier mumbled quietly.

He continued to flip through the pages…until he found a picture of weasel that he immediately started to like.

Despite of the picture not having any color, Javier really liked how the weasel looked. Its fur looked smooth and there was something about the weasel's black, shiny, and beady eyes that made Javier feel like he wasn't sure to be amazed or feel uncomfortable.

"This picture is perfect!" Javier whispered.

After checking the book out, Javier ran back to his house with the book underneath his arm and he felt so determined to draw his toon weasel without a lot of problems to worry about.

Immediately after running into his room and closing the door, Javier walked towards his desk as he opened up the book.

"Let's see if I can find that picture again." Javier said as he flipped through the pages and sat down in front of his desk. "Ah, here it is! Just what I was looking for."

Javier placed the book next to the sheet of paper and picked up his pencil.

He looked at the picture of the weasel and carefully studied it.

**Wow! He's very dedicated.**

"The weasel in the picture is awfully skinny." Javier said to himself. "I'm going to draw a rectangle to make the toon weasel's main body shape and I'll remember about the weasel being skinny in the future."

Javier looked at his sheet of paper and immediately drew a rectangle.

After looking at the picture of the weasel one last time, Javier went on ahead and began to draw the head…then, the eyes and the nose.

Five minutes later, Javier stopped drawing and looked at his toon weasel.

Javier frowned.

"That…looks terrible." He said.

**Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! What the heck am I looking at? I'm looking at a mish mash of shapes! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!**

Javier was right.

The drawing looked really terrible.

The nose and snout looked squished, the rectangle made the weasel look fat, and its feet were shaped like potatoes.

Javier crumbled the sheet of paper up into a ball and threw it across his room.

He grabbed more sheets of paper, picked up one of them, and began to draw.

Hours passed…and there wasn't a single improvement on the drawing of the toon weasel.

It was the same every time.

Javier would start with a rectangle and he would go on ahead and draw the head. Then, he would make the toon weasel's head too big, its nose too long, and its hands, arms, legs, and feet were often drawn with uneven lengths.

Every time Javier would draw, he would not stop and think about what shape would be suitable to shape the weasel. He would start with a rectangle, draw a circle, draw some lines inside the circle and rectangle, and would add other shapes until the drawing looked like nothing but a mish-mash.

Pencils were eventually beginning run low for Javier. Because of his multiple and repeating mistakes, Javier used the pencils' erasers so many times that they eventually became unusable and made it hard to erase the mistakes on the paper. There were even days for Javier when the pencil lead would break due to Javier being frustrated with himself and sharpen the pencil too much.

Eventually, three days passed and Javier began to lose keeping track of time. He would lose track of so much time that when it was time for Javier to get ready to work, Cortez would come into Javier's room and stop Javier and tell him to get ready for work and leave immediately after that.

"Why am I not improving on any of the drawings?" Javier asked himself. "This is really frustrating!"

In frustration, Javier slammed his pencil down on his desk and stared at the ceiling, thinking about the times when Cortez had a hard drawing a Toon and when he would start drawing something.

Suddenly, Javier remembered something that he promised that he would never forget.

One day, Cortez talked about anything is possible when it comes to drawing Toons and Walt Disney creating Mickey Mouse.

"Cortez told me that when someone is making a Toon, their bodies are often exaggerated." Javier said to himself. "When Walt Disney and his employees create toon animals, they don't always look like in their real world form. Their bodies and physical features are stretched or shrunk. When Walt Disney was making Mickey Mouse, Disney stated that even though Mickey's a mouse, he acts like a human. My toon weasel should look like a regular weasel but I should make him act more like a human and add some things from a human's physical appearance. What the heck am I doing?! I should all of my thoughts down on a sheet of paper _en este momento y de forma inmediata_!"

Javier grabbed another sheet of paper and picked up his pencil.

"I should also compare the way the Toons from the Warner Brothers side draw their Toons with how the Toons from the Disney side are drawn."

On the left side of the paper, Javier wrote and underlined:

**Warner Bros. Toons**:

On the right side of the paper, he wrote and underlined:

**Disney Toons**:

In the middle of the sheet of the paper, Javier wrote and underlined:

**Both:**

"Okay." Javier said. "For toon animals on the Disney side, toon animals often have little to no similarity to their real-life counterparts…"

He wrote that down quickly.

"…and most of the toon animals on the Disney side wear clothes."

**Very good observation.**

"As for the Toons on the Warner Brothers side, the toon animals have some body parts that are often from their real-life counterparts but they are extremely exaggerated. Not a lot of Toons from the Warner Brothers side do not wear clothes unless it's a part of comedy gag or when they have to dress up for a fancy occasion."

Javier immediately wrote everything down.

**Those are some very good observations.**

"For Toons on both sides, Toons are beings that are exaggerated versions of people, animals, and plants."

**Everybody knows that.**

Javier wrote that thought down.

A few seconds later, he said,

"Okay, I'm going to try to draw my toon weasel again. But before I do that, I'm going to look around Hollywood and take some pictures of some things to help me stay on track on drawing."

**That sounds like a great idea.**

Javier walked out of his room, took Cortez's camera, rode on the back of a Red Car Trolley, and wandered around Hollywood.

As time passed, Javier took pictures of a bowling pin that a Toon had thrown out from a window…

**Goodness gracious.**

…two toon deer from _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, _a diamond ring, a misshapen eye of a needle, another toon weasel that somebody created some time ago…

**WHAT?! YOU'RE COPYING ANOTHER PERSON'S TOON WEASEL?! DUDE, THAT'S PLAGIARIZING!**

…a mannequin with blue jeans and a green shirt, and a pair of black shoes.

After developing the pictures and going back home, Javier walked to his room with the pictures, sat down in front of his desk, and began to draw.

Using the picture of the other toon weasel as a model, along with the picture of the weasel in the book, Javier followed the shape of the toon weasel…made some changes.

**Changes? What kind of changes?**

Using the picture of a bowling pin, Javier drew the weasel with a body that wasn't too skinny or too chubby.

**Hey, that looks pretty good. That doesn't look bad at all.**

For two more hours, Javier continued to draw his toon weasel while following the pictures and the look of the weasel quickly improved.

"This is looking good so far." Javier mumbled.

Then, thirty more minutes later, Javier stopped drawing and looked at his toon weasel.


	19. Chapter 19: Agapito's Finishing Touches

**Chapter Nineteen**

**Yen Sid's Narration Voice:**

Javier frowned and studied the picture.

The shape of the toon weasel's body looked much better, along with the nose, the snout, but the eyes look strange and the bushy tail…

**Greasy had a tail? Why does it look like a fox's tail?**

…made the toon weasel look like a fox.

**Whoops, I did it again. What a coincidence.**

Even though that there were a lot of improvements on the toon weasel, there still some things that weren't right.

"Hmm, the body looks better," Javier muttered, "but there are some things that I will have to fix. I will have to fix the eyes. I followed the shape of the toon deer's eyes and they're making the weasel look like a female instead of a male. I will have to follow the way the other toon weasel's eyes are shaped and erase the tail. The tail…*sigh*…it looks too weird."

Javier picked up his pencil and erased the tail, just as he said to himself.

**Okay, Greasy looks much better without the tail.**

Then, after looking at the picture of the other toon weasel, Javier erased the 'girly' eyes…and quickly began to draw them into a different shape. The eyes slowly shrunk and narrowed…until Javier stopped drawing after seeing that they were the right shape and size. The toon weasel's eyes were not too long, too narrow, or too round. They were just the right shape.

"I need to add something else." Javier said. "But what?"

Then, an idea came to him.

"I know!" Javier exclaimed softly. "Since the other toon weasel was wearing a hat, maybe I'll draw on hat on my weasel, too!"

But just as he was about to draw a hat, Javier immediately stopped.

"No. That's not a good idea. A hat's no good." He said.

Then, another idea came to Javier.

"What if I add some hair?" He asked to himself. "Why, yes! Maybe I should!"

Javier brought the lead end on the pencil up to the top of the toon weasel's head and carefully began to draw some hair.

**Now this is the Greasy that I'm looking for. **

The toon weasel's hair was drawn to be slicked back as if it were combed and Javier stopped drawing the hair after seeing that it was at the right length, which reached halfway down his long, slightly skinny neck.

Then, Javier put his pencil down and looked at the toon weasel again.

After a few seconds, Javier smiled and said,

"All this weasel needs is a name and some color. He looks…PERFECT."

Javier picked up the cel sheet and placed it over the drawing.

Then, he opened up five tubes of acrylic paint, light brown, medium brown, dark brown, black, and white, squeezed out a little bit of each, allowing the paint to flatten a little bit on an extra sheet of paper, and picked up a paint brush.

After five minutes of dipping and careful spreading, Javier put the paint brush down and smiled at his toon weasel.

"And now, I shall give you a name." He said. "But what should I name you?"

Javier aimed his eyes at his bedroom ceiling in thought.

A long list of names began to run around in his head. Javier knew several good names but he also knew that he can give his toon weasel only one.

Finally, a good name came to Javier.

"I know what to name you." He said to the weasel. "Your name…is Agapitio…"

***gasssssp*! Is that Greasy's real name?! Oh, my gosh! Wow!**

"…and you are nineteen and a half. Just you wait. I am going to bring you to life after your paint dries and you will be able to walk, talk, run, and even help me, Cortez, and Juana. I happen to know just the right place that can bring you to life."

**And where is that place?**

The next day, with Cortez's permission, an excited Javier ran down with the cel of Agapito in a paper folder under his arm.

"I can hardly wait to bring my weasel to life!" He exclaimed as he ran down the sidewalks of Hollywood with his increasing excitement. "This is going to be so amazing!"

After a few more minutes of running, Javier came across an abandoned building that had a big sign that had **Toon Life Giving House **painted in blue.

He walked in and looked around the building.

This little shop used to be very helpful when bringing Toons to life and allowing them to coexist with humans was about to be a good idea. But when the shop's multi-plane camera started to have problems and when the Toon population was slowly getting ridiculously bigger, the shop had to close down.

Javier knew and figured that even though that the multi-plane camera had problems, the little shop is the only place where Javier can bring his toon weasel to life without having to wait in a long line.

"Oh, there you are." Javier said after spotting the multi-plane camera.

While walking to the multi-plane camera, Javier opened the paper folder and took out the cel.

He sighed as he looked at his toon weasel.

"Well, Agapito," Javier said, "this is it. I'm about to bring you to life. I'm not going to regret this."

Immediately after saying that, Javier placed the cel on the glass of the multi-plane camera, bent down, picked up a white sheet, and covered the cel with it.

Then, Javier walked to a long handle and looked at it for a second.

"_Supongo que esto mango activa la cámara multiplano_." He mumbled to himself.

Then, Javier reached for the handle…and pulled it.

**…Nothing's happening.**

In confusion, Javier looked at the handle…and looked up at the multi-plane camera.

"_Qué en el mundo?_" Javier muttered.

He pushed the handle forward…and pulled it back.

Immediately after pulling the handle back, a loud BANG was heard, making Javier jump in surprise.

**Whooooooooaaaaaa….**

Then, electricity began to spark.

"Oh, my gosh." Javier whispered.

BANG!

"AHH!"

The walls began to shake and pieces of the ceiling of the building began to fall down.

**Oh, the building is going to collapse!**

Javier ran away from the multi-plane camera after a giant piece of the ceiling fell beside him and more electricity began to grow brightly and buzz loudly.

He ducked into a corner and shielded his head and eyes with his hands and arms as the building began to shake and the electricity continued to buzz but at a higher volume.

Javier closed his eyes and waited for the worst possible thing to happen as his toon weasel was still in the process of being brought to life. He was so terrified that he began to mumble things to himself.

Finally, an even louder BOOM was heard, exploding in the air…and everything immediately went silent.

Javier uncovered his head and face and looked at the multi-plane camera.

He gasped in horror.

"WHAT?!" He exclaimed.

Immediately, Javier ran towards the multi-plane camera.

To his horror, the sheet that was covering the cel of Javier's toon weasel was flat.

"Oh, no! The sheet is flat!" Javier exclaimed. "That's not good! If the sheet is flat, it means that the Toon's not alive!"

Javier grabbed the sheet, pulled it off, and tossed to the other side of the room.

He looked at his toon weasel with a look of failure.

"I'm sorry, Agapito." Javier said. "I'm so sorry."

Then, after a few seconds, Javier gasped.


	20. Chapter 20: You're ALIVE!

**Chapter Twenty**

**Yen Sid's Narration Voice:**

"Oh, my gosh!" Javier exclaimed. "_Eres…usted no es pequeña ya! _You're a little more than four feet long!"

**Wait, did he just say-?!**

Agapito was no longer a five inch long drawing. Thanks to the effects of the multiplane camera, Agapito was stretched to a length of a little more than four feet…which meant that if he stood back to back with Mickey Mouse, he would be a little more than two feet taller.

**Whoa.**

"Wait a minute." Javier said to himself. "If you're a little more than four feet long…then...that must mean…YOU'RE ALIVE! YOU'RE…ALIIIIIIVE! Right?"

Suddenly, a kind voice asked,

"Are you all right, young man?"

Javier yelped in surprise.

"Did you just talk?" He asked Agapito, who was still lying flat on his back. "How on Earth did you do that without your mouth moving?"

"Turn around and you'll see me." The kind voice replied.

Javier turned around, just as the voice told him.

"Oh, _lo siento mucho_, sir." Javier said. "I thought that my toon weasel was talking to me."

Now that Javier just turned around, standing in front of him was a tall and skinny toon man with kind green eyes. He was even dressed in a gray suit and not a single wrinkle was found on it.

The toon man smiled at Javier.

"It's okay." He said. "And I'm sorry that I scared you just a second ago. I had to see if you were okay because I heard you shouting."

Javier's eyes widened.

"I was shouting?" He asked. "Oh, yeah! I just noticed that my toon weasel just had his length changed."

"Oh, okay." The toon man said.

"So…nothing's wrong, mister…uh…"

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name…is Baltsaros Jameson Rhadamanthus…"

Javier stared at the toon man in shock and awe, making the toon man chuckle.

"…but…a lot of Toons and some humans know me as 'Baron Von Rotten'."

**Baron Von Rotten? I think somebody might've mention that name to me one time. **

"'Baron Von Rotten'?" Javier asked. "Why are you called that? You're not showing the signs of being rotten."

"I'm called 'Baron Von Rotten' because my real name is a mouthful and it'll be really difficult for a lot of Toons and people to remember." Baron replied. "Another reason is because I've been playing a lot of bad guy roles in movies…and my new name kind of started to stick to me after realizing that it should be my pseudonym when I'm playing in movies or walking around in public places.  
"I see."

Baron took a deep breath and sighed.

"Now that I've told you my name, I would like to know yours." He said.

"I'm Javier Edgardo." Javier replied.

"Javier. Hmm."

Javier chuckled.

"Yeah, I know. It's not a very long name." He said.

Baron chuckled.

"Oh, no!" He said. "It's just that I've never heard the name 'Javier' before and I think it's really interesting."

"Really?"

"Really, really."

"Okay."

**Wow! This Baron Von Rotten looks like a really nice guy. **

"So Javier, I have a question for you." Baron said. "Why did you come here to bring a Toon to life?"

"I was afraid of waiting in a long line." Javier replied. "I didn't want to wait because I thought that my weasel was really important and I wanted to bring him to life right away."

"Oh. Well, is your weasel alive now?"

Javier looked at the multiplane camera…and he looked back at Baron.

"I don't know." Javier said. "I mean, his length changed after the multiplane camera did its job. Does the change of a Toon's length mean that a Toon's alive, Baron?"

"Well—" Baron began and gasped in shock.

Javier blinked in surprise.

"What's the matter?" He asked.

"Look at the multiplane camera." Baron said as his eyes widened.

Javier turned towards the multiplane camera…and gasped loudly.

***gaaasp*! Oh…my…gosh.**

"Your Toon's alive!" Baron whispered in surprise.

Slowly, the toon weasel's hands rose up and his fingers wiggled after it felt the cold air touching them for the very first time.

**Whoa.**

Javier watched with shock and amazement as the toon weasel's hands moved towards the sides of the multiplane camera…and PUSHED HIMSELF UP AND OUT OF THE MULTIPLANE CAMERA, getting himself more exposed to the world, Javier, and Baron.

"Should we help him?" Javier whispered to Baron.

"No, just let him get out on his own." Baron whispered back. "It looks like he doesn't have a problem getting out."

"Okay."

With the help of his lower body toon strength, the toon weasel swung his legs out of the multiplane camera like he was getting out of bed and his body faced Javier and Baron.

***gasp*! He's now a three dimensional being!**

Then, the toon weasel started to look down at his hands.

As he looked the downside and the upside of his hands, Javier whispered to Baron,

"What's he doing?"

"He's very curious about his hands." Baron whispered back. "That's natural for Toons, even for Toons who are drawn to be intelligent, just seconds after coming to life."

Javier nodded his head in understanding.

Just as the toon weasel was about to look down at his feet and see what they can do, he looked up at Javier and Baron.

"Hi…uh, uh, _hola_." Javier stammered. "My name is…"

But before Javier could any more, the toon weasel widened his eyes and gasped in fear. Almost immediately after that, the toon weasel leaped on to his feet…and attempted to run...

**Oh, dear.**

But since he just came to life, the toon weasel just tripped. Then, he got on to his knees and scurried away, disappearing into a big hole three feet away from the multiplane camera.

"No, wait!" Javier cried out. "_No tengas miedo_! Don't be scared!"

After a pause, Javier looked at Baron and asked,

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No, Javier, you didn't." Baron replied. "Some Toons, even ones that are created to be brave, act like that after coming to life. It takes a little bit of time for them to gain their courage. I think it's best for you to go after your Toon before he gets too scared to come out. Approach him in a non-threatening matter and call to him a little bit almost like you're calling a dog."

Javier nodded and walked to the hole.

He can see the toon weasel's eyes glowing a bright white in the darkness of the hole and he knew that his toon weasel is doing a terrible job of trying to hide.

"It's okay." Javier said to the toon weasel in a quiet voice. "I'm not going to hurt you. Come on out."

The toon weasel cautiously and slowly poked his head out of hole.

Javier beckoned the toon weasel with his right hand and said,

"That's it. Come here. Come here."

The toon weasel crawled out of the hole cautiously as he looked at Javier's hand. He reached for his creator's hand with his own right hand…and quickly touched his creator's palm before drawing his hand back.

"Hi." Javier whispered to the toon weasel. "_Hola. _My name…is Javier. I just brought you to life after drawing you. Welcome to Hollywood 1941. _Bienvenido a Hollywood 1941."_

The toon weasel just stared at Javier in confusion and curiosity.


	21. Chapter 21: Toons and Life

**Chapter Twenty One**

**(Hey, y'all! **

**Sorry that I'm taking so long on these chapters!**

**It's just that I'm going to be graduating in a few days and my birthday's coming up on Saturday. So, yeah. A lot of things are happening to me and I feel like I need a break right now.**

**I'm going to try my best to post more chapters without taking too long and I'm sorry for keeping y'all waiting!**

**Enjoy this story and chapter and life as it goes!**

**-imaginarytoon1)**

**Yen Sid's Narration Voice:**

"Your name…is Agapito." Javier said after a pause.

Agapito pointed to himself, as if he were asking, "Me?"

Javier nodded.

"Yes." He replied. "That's your name that I gave you after I was done drawing you."

Agapito replied back by nodding his head and glancing around his surroundings instead speaking with words.

Javier frowned in confusion.

…**Ha, ha, ha! Greasy's mimicking Javier!**

As Agapito mimicked his creator's facial expression, Javier turned to Baron and said,

"I don't understand. I created Agapito to talk so that he can star in the latest Disney movie…and the only sound that he made after coming to life was gasping. Do you have any ideas or pieces of knowledge about Toons, Baron?"

Baron aimed his eyes at the ceiling in thought and Javier waited patiently.

Agapito, who was watching his creator and his friend, imitated Baron. He aimed his eyes at the ceiling and mimicked the way Baron was thinking.

Javier looked at Agapito and chuckled silently.

Baron looked at Javier and said,

"This is just a guess but I think that I might know why your toon weasel's not talking."

As Agapito watched in curiosity, Javier asked,

"What's the reason?"

"While you were drawing your toon weasel, did you talk at all?"

Javier glanced at Agapito and began to think real hard. He thought about the things that he couldn't remember saying while he was drawing Agapito.

Finally, Javier replied,

"I only exclaimed some things in frustration while I was drawing Agapito and I exclaimed them at least three times. I even talked to myself a bit. That's all that I can remember."

"Okay." Baron said. "So you said a few things. I think that because you only said a few things instead of talking non-stop is probably the reason why your toon weasel cannot talk. It could be that or…something else."

"What's the other thing, Baron?"

"His ability to talk is probably not fully developed and it'll take a little time for it to develop."

"What should I do to make him my toon weasel to talk?"

"Teach him like a kid who's beginning to learn how to read and pronounce every-day words. Teach him all that you know and make sure that he reads as many books as he can. I don't know how long it'll take for your toon weasel to talk but I certainly hope that he wouldn't be like Mickey Mouse."

"What does Mickey Mouse and Dopey have to do with anything?"

"After Mickey was brought to life, it took him almost a year to start talking."

Javier's eyes widened in shock.

"Almost a year?!" He exclaimed.

"It wasn't until he played in his third cartoon, _The Karnival Kid, _when he exclaimed his first words and sung his first set of improvised lyrics." Baron replied.

"Oh, my gosh."

After clearing his throat and looking at his pocket-watch, Baron said,

"Look, I wish that I can give you some more pieces of information but I have to go. I have to go and get ready for a movie that I'm playing in. To get more information about Toons, go see…" He reached into the front pocket of his suit and pulled out a small business card. "…Marvin Acme. He knows a lot about Toons and he's extremely kind to them."

As Baron handed Javier the card, Javier asked,

"Where can I find Marvin Acme?"

"He's at a toon gag factory that's five blocks away." Baron replied.

***yawn* I think that I'm going to pause the memories right there.**

…..

**Beatrice:**

I stop the movie projector as I sighed and said to myself,

"This is getting really interesting. So far, I've learned how Toons are created, brought to life, and how they behave after becoming three-dimensional beings just seconds after coming out of the multiplane camera. This is an interesting start on how Greasy's life began before he became a second-in-command leader of the Toon Patrol."

I walked to the attic door and manually pushed it open. I used a little bit of my telekinesis to unfold the ladder and I watch it unfold and eventually touch the floor.

_Should I practice using my telekinetic flight? _I thought. _Hmm…probably not. I'll do that tomorrow._

I climb down the ladder carefully as my eyes began to grow heavy.

"Geez, I'm tired." I whispered.

By the time my feet touch the floor, I yawned again and backed away from the ladder. Then, I telekinetically made the ladder fold back up and close it with the attic door.

…..

***TIME SKIP***

I close my bedroom door and turn off my lights.

"I wonder what time it is right now." I mumbled to myself.

I look at my clock radio.

*sigh*

It's only fifteen minutes before midnight.

Not bad.

It's summer vacation and that means that I can stay up as long as I want and wake up at any time without any interruptions.

"Why can't every day be summer vacation?" I asked myself as I got under the covers of my bed.

Oh, man. It feels so good to—

Zzzzzzzz…

…..

…..._I'm…walking._

_ No, really. That's all I'm doing. I'm just walking._

_ I'm walking down an empty road…and I don't know where it's leading me._

_ Believe me, I SERIOUSLY don't know where the road is leading me. All I see is a bright blue…Oh, I take it back. It looks like it's about to rain. I hear the thunder but I'm hearing or feeling any raindrops falling. At least the grass is green and the road just looks like a road that I would always see for seventeen years._

_ …Now I have a feeling that someone's watching and following me._

_ "Who's following me?" I asked out loud as I turn my head and looked around._

_ No reply._

_ …Okay, there's nobody behind me but I'm sensing a presence that I can't see._

_ And I think that I see…_

_ Wait. Is it really—?_

_ Why, yes! It is!_

_ It's the end of the road!_

_ …Oh, my gosh! It's REALLY the end of the road!_

_ No, seriously! I'm not kidding! All I'm seeing at the end is the edge!_

_ I'm not sure if I want to continue to go any further than where I am right now. If I continue to walk towards the end, then there will no more road for me to walk on. If I turn back, I'll end up going back to where I started. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I started. All I remember is just walking without starting at a specific destination._

_ This is just too bizarre._

_ You know what? I'm going to stop walking…right…NOW._

_ I'm not walking anymore._

_ All I'm going to do is stand where I'm right now and figure out if I should keep going forward or just head back to my unknown starting point._

_ "I'm NOT going ANYWHERE until my mind's made up." I said to myself._

_ Then, I looked around to see if that invisible being made itself known and visible. _

…_That being's not anywhere in sight._

_Then, I raised my voice and exclaimed really loudly,_

"_I HOPE YOU HEARD THAT! I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL I MAKE UP MY MIND ABOUT WHERE I WANT TO GO! YOU BETTER NOT DO ANYTHING THAT'LL CATCH ME OFF GUARD OR SURPRISE ME IN ANY WAY!"_

_I sure do hope that the being heard what I shouted._

_But just in case if it's about to not take me seriously, I should let it know right now._

_I exclaimed, "I'M SERIOUS ON WHAT I JUST SAID! NO SURPRISES! I HOPE YOU HEARD THAT!"_

…_No reply._

_I think the being listened to me._

_Okay! Let the thinking begin._

_Seconds pass…then minutes…and eventually hours pass…but I still continued to think and stand where I am. _

_Have I made up my mind yet?_

…_Unfortunately, I still haven't made up my mind. _

_I'm serious. I'm stuck. I still can't decide on what I should do._

_I have been standing and thinking for so long...and I'm…beginning to forget what I'm thinking out…and I still have a feeling that there's someone watching me and they're probably about to do something. I don't know what they're planning to do but I know that it's anything but good and pleasant._

"_Whoever you are," I shouted nervously, "you better not do anything that'll catch me off guard or surprise me in any way! I still haven't made up my mind on what I want to do right now!" _

_I want to continue standing…but my legs are aching and my feet feel sore. I don't know if I want to sit down or remain standing._

_I groan loudly in frustration._

_Personally, I think it's better if I sit down for a few minutes. _

"_All right." I said to myself. "Just sit down for a few minutes…and then, it's back to standing."_

_I bend down to my knees and sat down on the road. It feels really hard but since there's not a bench in sight, the road will just have to do._

_Now I feel like I want to do something while I'm sitting. I know that I want to do something. Something besides staring out into space._

…_*gasp*! I know what I want to do!_

_I'm going to meditate!_

_I cross my legs and place my hands on my knees. Then, I close my eyes and started to do some deep slow breathing._

_Inhale…exhale…inhale…exhale…inhale…exhale…inhale…exhale…and inhale…and exhale…_

_Wow, this feels great. I haven't felt this relaxed in a long time. I should do this more often during my free time. In fact, I feel so good that I feel light as a feather and I even feel like I'm floating._

_Wait. Did I just say that I felt like I was floating?_

_I slowly open my eyes._

_ …Okay, I don't see any changes. Everything looks the same…which is good._

_ "I think I've had enough meditating for now…and I think that I've made up my mind on where I want to go." I said._

_ I lean back and…AHHH! _

_ MY HAND'S NOT TOUCHING THE GROUND!_

_ …I'M FIFTY FEET AWAY FROM THE EDGE! WAIT A MINUTE! THAT'S NOT AN EDGE! IT'S A CLIFF…AND I'M TOO FAR AWAY FROM IT…AND I'M FLOATING A MILE AWAY FROM THE GROUND BELOW!_

_ OH, NO! SOMETHING JUST MADE ME MOVE!_

_ I'M FREAKING OUT, I'M FREAKING OUT, I'M FREAKING OUT!_

_ …Oh, great, now I'm going down!_

_ Well, I'm not going down fast…which is…really scary. I feel like someone just made me pause in a pose and is making me move slow motion. _

_ This doesn't feel right!_

_ I know that any moment—_

_ OH, NO! I'M GOING DOWN FAST! I'M FALLING DOWN WITH INCREASING SPEED!_

_ I'M GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO THE GROUND! I KNOW I AM! _

_ …*THUD*!_

…

Now I'm feeling like I can't breathe while landing on something hard.

I gasp loudly, open my eyes…and panted like I just woke up from a nightmare.

I'm in my room…lying down on my bed…and covered with my bed covers and sheets. I'm NOT falling down from a—

"Are you okay?"

I gasp and turn my head back sharply.

…Oh. It's just Greasy. I can see that his toon eyes are glowing in the darkness of my room like they usually do when he comes in for a late night visit in my room…and he is sitting next to me with his left hand on my head.

"Yeah." I replied to Greasy as I rubbed my eyes. "I'm okay."

"I was getting worried about you." Greasy said. "You looked calm when I came in and a few minutes later, you looked like you stepped on a pin."

"Really?"

"_Si."_

"Well, just to let you know, Greasy, I wasn't having a nightmare. I was dreaming about slowly falling down from the top of a cliff and landing hard on the ground. Heck, the impact felt so real that I felt myself getting pushed down on my mattress. It's a really strange feeling that some people get when they're asleep."

"That feeling scares me."

I looked at Greasy's glowing eyes.

"It scares a lot of people who experience it." I said. "I can't say that I blame you."

"Hmm." Greasy replied.

"What time is it right now?"

After a pause, Greasy replied,

"It's three fifteen."

I groaned.

"I thought that I was going to wake up at a much later time." I said. "You didn't come in through the front door, did you?"

"No, I didn't." Greasy replied. "I came in through your window."

"Okay."

I stretch myself a little bit and sighed.

Then, after remembering watching Greasy come to life, a question came to my mind. I want to ask it to Greasy but I can't let him know that I'm watching his memories.

I'll have to be careful asking him the question.

"I have a question to ask." I said to Greasy. "This question is about Toons and their process of being created."

"Really?" Greasy asked.

(I'm not even sure if he just asked it while sounding curious.)

"I'm sorry if it's—" I began.

"No, no. It's okay. It's okay if you ask me." Greasy said, interrupting me.

Okay, here I go.

I have to sound like I'm not looking up information about the Toon Patrol.

I took a deep breath.

"Were you born or drawn?" I asked nervously.

Okay, now that just sounded really weird.

"I was drawn. In fact, several Toons are drawn." Greasy replied simply. "After their drawn, they're brought to life with a multiplane camera."

"Since you were brought to life with the help of a multiplane camera, did you experience any feelings of being shocked?" I asked.

"Ah, no, but I did feel something else. I felt a feeling that's similar to the dream you described earlier. I don't remember anything about being just a drawing on a sheet of paper but I do remember feeling a type of feeling that felt like I just landed hard on the ground. Then, without thinking, I just start breathing and moving…and after I came to life, I didn't remember anything about coming to life…until Yen Sid showed me one day."

I nod my head in understanding.

"What you said earlier is kind of like how humans act when they're babies." I said. "They have no memories about being babies and they just, like you said, breathe and move without thinking."

"That's interesting." Greasy replied as I slowly began to close my eyes.

I started to breathe heavily and tried to go back to sleep. As I felt my eyes growing heavy, I heard Greasy humming something.

Then, the humming turned into soft singing.

Greasy's…singing some tune that sounds really familiar. I know that I've heard that song before except it was sung in English instead of Spanish.

…I know what Greasy's singing in Spanish.

He's singing…_I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing _by Aerosmith.

Wow, I haven't heard that song in a long time and I wonder how Greasy knows the lyrics.

…Oh, my gosh, the way Greasy's singing the song sounds really…soothing. It sounds nice and it's making me feel really sleepy.

Then, I felt Greasy putting his hand on my left cheek, tilting my head downwards a little bit, and kissed the top of my head.


	22. Chapter 22: Not For Long

**Chapter Twenty Two**

**Beatrice:**

…It's morning…and it's eight-forty five.

Hmm. Not a bad time.

Well, my mind's awake but my eyes feel tired. Should I rest for a little bit? If I'm going to feel and remain fully awake throughout today, then yes.

….ZZZZzzzzz….

…

***TIME SKIP***

…What time is right now?

...It is now…nine o'clock.

Oh, well. I guess that I can start the morning around nine o'clock. At least it's better than six o'clock in the morning.

…And wasn't Greasy sitting on my bed during the very early morning hours? He certainly was sitting on my bed because I saw him after I woke up from a dream.

"Maybe I just dreamt another dream." I shrugged.

I pick up my glasses from my night stand and slipped them on. Then, I push my bed covers off of me and swung my legs to my left before grabbing my phone. I walk out of my room and made my way to the kitchen.

The cold air from the air conditioners of the house started to blow on me, giving me goosebumps on my arms, shoulders, back, and neck. I know that once I step outside, I will be all warmed up and no longer feel cold until I have the need to cool off.

"I'll probably check the weather after breakfast." I mumbled to myself. "If the weather's good today, then maybe I can do some walking or run some errands. If not, then I'll practice my telekinetic flight."

As soon as I entered the kitchen, I walked to the fridge, opened it, and took out a small carton of orange juice before closing the fridge door.

Just as I was about to poke the tiny and skinny plastic straw into the orange juice carton, Tommy walked into the kitchen and said,

"Good morning, Beatrice."

"Good morning, Tommy." I replied.

"What are you going to do today?"

"If the weather's good today, I'm either going to go walking or run some errands."

"I checked the weather just a few minutes ago. It's going to be ninety-nine degrees outside and it'll be sunny all day."

"Ninety-nine degrees? Wow!"

"And it's going to be like that for the rest of the week."

"Geez."

"I know."

"What are you going to do today?" I asked.

"I think that I'm going to go find a job." Tommy replied.

"Really? That's cool. Where are you planning to work, Tommy?"

"I don't know. That's way I decided to wander around town for ideas."

"Might want to look fast, Tommy, because the last time I checked, a lot of jobs were taken in May. So you better hurry."

"I'll try."

Then, my phone began to vibrate on the counter.

…It's a text from Cressida.

She is asking me,

** Do you want to meet up with me at the Blue Jay later today for lunch? **

I reply back,

**Sure. What time and can I bring Tommy along if he wants to come?**

I press SEND.

I look at Tommy. As he is grabbing a small box of Cheerios out from one of the cabinets, I ask,

"Would you like to join me and Cressida for lunch at the Blue Jay, Tommy?"

While taking the plastic sheet off the box, Tommy replied,

"Sure. That would be great."

Immediately after saying that, my phone vibrated in my hand.

…Cressida just said,

**Meet me at the Blue Jay a quarter after noon. And yes, Tommy can come along if he wants to.**

…

***TIME SKIP***

"Really?" Cressida asked while twisting some of her spaghetti with her fork. "That's what happens to a Toon just when they're about to come to life? That's kind of freaky!"

Huh? What about the conversation? Oh! The conversation that I'm having right now is about Greasy and the process of creating Toons. Who is involved in this conversation? Me, Tommy, and Cressida. Where are we now? Sitting down at a booth in the Blue Jay with our lunches.

"I know." I replied to Cressida. "It's funny how when the thought of someone being brought to life is brought up, the other people around them will usually think about Jesus Christ, Lazarus, and Frankenstein's Monster."

"Don't forget the dog from Tim Burton's _Frankenweenie._" Cressida added.

I nodded.

"Right." I said.

"Did Yen Sid mention anything in Greasy's memories about Greasy remembering being brought to life?" Cressida asked.

"No. Instead of revealing that, Yen Sid just kind of narrates Greasy's memories like he's reading a book out loud. When I asked Greasy, without revealing anything about me watching his memories, he said that he doesn't remember coming to life. That's probably because he wasn't fully alive when that happened. Despite of that, Greasy told me, he remembers feeling like he landed on the ground with a big thud…and without thinking, he immediately starts to breathe and move."

Cressida nodded her head in understanding.

"You haven't told Greasy what you have been doing, right?" Tommy asked after swallowing a big swig of his Dr. Pepper.

"No, I haven't." I replied. "I haven't told him. I think that I'll tell Greasy when it's the right time."

Cressida looked at me with…probably a look of doubt.

"I hate to disagree with you, Beatrice, but I have a feeling that looking at the memories of the Toon Patrol will not be a secret for long." She said. "When you said that you will tell Greasy during the right time, something just clicked in my head and it kind of got me thinking."

"What?" I asked.

"Well, whenever someone says that they will tell another person something when they think it's the right time, something always makes that person spill the beans about the secret. I'm afraid that something will make you reveal your secret and that'll make Greasy, Smarty, Psycho, Wheezy, and Stupid find out about you watching their memories."

"Cressida, whenever I have a secret, I'm a tough nut to crack. I'm very good at keeping secrets."

Tommy nodded his head in agreement.

"She's right." He said. "I remember when Beatrice and I were ten years old, our dad had a present for our mom just three months before her birthday and he told Beatrice to keep our mother's gift a secret. I have no idea how Beatrice managed to keep our mother's gift a secret but she was awfully good it."

"Tommy, I believe you and Beatrice," Cressida replied, "but seriously, I think that one way or another, gathering information from the memories of the Toon Patrol will not be a secret that can be kept for long. I'm not a psychic or a fortune teller but I know that something is going to make Beatrice accidently let out a small detail that'll reveal anything."

"Like if I accidently call Greasy by his real name when I'm talking to him?" I asked.

"Something like that."

Then, just as Cressida was about eat some of her spaghetti, she stopped and said,

"Did you also just say 'call Greasy by his real name' a second ago? I wasn't sure if I was hearing that correctly."

"Yeah." I replied.

"What did you mean by that?"

"Greasy had a name before we call him the name that we call him today. Before Greasy became 'Greasy', he was formally known as 'Agapito Edgardo'."

"Really? 'Agapito Edgardo' used to be his name?"

"Yep."

"I wonder how Greasy earned the name that we all know today."

"I know that I'll get to that part much…much…much later."


	23. Chapter 23: Juana and The Officer

**Chapter Twenty Three**

***TIME SKIP***

**Beatrice:**

It's nine fifteen in the evening.

Dad's still in his office (and he's probably typing up another chapter), and Tommy's probably in his room, trying out some techniques that I used while developing my telekinesis (so that his telekinesis can improve a little bit more).

"I think that I'm good to go." I whispered to myself. "It's time for me to watch more of Greasy's memories."

I telekinetically pulled down the attic door and used my developing telekinetic flight to fly up into the attic. Okay…so far…so good…I'm almost to the attic…I'm in the attic…I'm almost touching the floor…Whew! I made it!

And now, it's time to watch Greasy's memories.

I held my right hand out and aimed my palm down at the bottom of the attic ladder. Then, I slowly drew my hand towards my ear as I watch the ladder fold back up towards me. I use my telekinesis to pull the ladder up…and close the attic door.

I smirked and chuckled.

"Mission accomplished." I said to myself.

I walked over to the movie projector…and turned it on…

…

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

Agapito followed Javier like ducklings trailing behind their mother in a single file line. As he walked behind his creator, Agapito looked around the big tall buildings and the passing humans and their dogs.

He watched with curiosity as he walked up to a passing dog and its owner…who was a police officer. While frowning in confusion, Agapito looked at the walking dog. To him, the dog looked a little odd. It was animal like Agapito but it wasn't a weasel like him. The dog walked on all fours like many four-legged animals in the human world and Agapito walked like a human being.

Javier turned his head and he saw that Agapito wasn't walking next to him. He gasped and started to look around frantically for his toon weasel.

Then, suddenly, Javier heard a loud "HEY", making him spin around.

"Hey, you toon thing!" The police officer shouted angrily. "Get away from my dog! Stay away from him!"

**Whoa, wait. Did that police officer just call Greasy…a "thing"? Now that's very insulting.**

"_Señor, por favor_!" Javier exclaimed. "Leave Agapito alone! He's been alive for a few minutes!"

The police officer looked at Javier with an angry look.

"Does this thing belong to you, young man?" The officer asked as Agapito looked at Javier.

**Oooh, this is not going to be good.**

"This THING is a TOON, sir." Javier replied with a frown. "And that TOON has a name. His name is Agapito."

"I DON'T CARE if that THING has a name." The officer said and pointed his finger at Agapito. "I just want IT away from ME and MY DOG."

Agapito looked at the officer and then at Javier. The toon weasel had no idea what to do or how to react. He was watching his master talk to a police officer who seems to have a problem with him for maybe no reason at all.

"HIM, not…IT!" Javier exclaimed angrily at the officer. "And no one talks to him or me like that!"

Almost immediately after he exclaimed, some men and women watched with curiosity to see what was happening.

"Young man," The police officer said in a threatening voice, "if you continue to talk to ME like that, then I will drag you down to the police station and I will make sure that you learn to respect an officer like me. Now what's it going to be? Are you going to say something bad back to me?"

Javier stared at the officer with a huge irritated frown while Agapito just watched with shock and curiosity. The witnesses that were watching with interest waited for Javier to answer the officer.

Finally, Javier grabbed Agapito by the wrist and replied to the officer with a threatening voice,

"Not today. Not today and maybe not tomorrow or the day after that."

Then, Javier said to Agapito,

"Come on, Agapito. Let's go home."

Agapito looked at the officer as he and Javier walked their way to Javier's home.

**Oh, man. Javier was very lucky this time. He was standing up for himself and for Aga—I mean, Greasy, and he almost got himself into a lot of trouble. I'm also very glad that the fight didn't involve physical violence.**

As Javier walked, he thought about the way the police officer talked to him. He didn't like it one bit. Javier knew that police officers should never talk so harshly to anyone…especially to Toons who just came to life. Despite of that, Javier knew that police officers aren't going to take people like Javier, his father, or his grandmother seriously. People like Javier just…don't have the right to be fully respected by police…yet.

**I hate it when the police were like that during the 1940s!**

Agapito, on the other hand, was looking at the places that he and his master were passing. Then, he looked at Javier who was still looking forward. Almost immediately after looking at his master, Agapito began to feel something grow inside of him. It was a new feeling. It was a negative feeling. Agapito started to feel this feeling that very similar to feeling irritated and he also felt like he wanted Javier to look at him and speak to him about what happened during the interaction with the police officer.

***gasp*! Greasy's developing the feeling of wanting to have attention! He's acting like a person who's demanding for an answer. Wow! I didn't know that feelings and emotions can be expressed and developed that quickly after Toons come to life!**

Javier didn't look and check on Agapito until they reached his house. His eyes widened in surprise and his frown vanished when he saw that his toon weasel had a genuine frown on his face.

"What's the matter, Agapito?" Javier asked. "Is something bothering you?"

Agapito replied by just pointing his index finger at his surroundings that were behind him.

Javier shook his head his in confusion.

"I don't understand what you mean by…" He began.

Agapito interrupted Javier by holding his right hand out in front of him, frowned an even bigger frown, and looked to his left.

**What…is he doing?**

"Agapito, what are you doing?" Javier asked.

Then, Agapito started to mouth words that were spoken by the police.

**AHH! Greasy doesn't have his teeth! That is too freaky!**

Unfortunately, because of Agapito's missing teeth, Javier still couldn't understand what Agapito was mouthing and trying to tell him.

"Wait, wait, _pare por un minuto_." Javier said. "I can't understand what you're trying to do and say. Wait here for a second."

Agapito dropped his hand and his frown transformed into a blank look as Javier took off running to a room in the house.

It didn't take very long for Agapito to grow curious. He began to look around in the room that he was waiting in and his curiosity grew even more when he came across…

**Uh oh. Greasy…**

…a mouse trap.

**…don't push the catch. One little push and the mouse trap will snap.**

The mouse trap looked really odd to Agapito. It was as big as a playing card and it was as thick as a bottle cap. The cheese that was glued on to the catch caught Agapito's attention. He held the trap with his left hand and inched his right hand towards the piece of cheese.

"AHHHHHHH!"

**AHH! Oh, my gosh! What was that?!**

Agapito jumped in surprise and the mouse trap flew out of his hands. Then, he looked around frantically for the source of the scream.

Suddenly, something hit Agapito's head and exploded into pieces as he heard someone shout,

"_Die! Die! Die, que gran rata!"_

Agapito turned his head to his right and saw Juana holding a giant meat cleaver. He didn't know how to react at first. Agapito didn't know whether to run away or stand still in fear. Unfortunately, he picked the second option.

"_Puedo verte. Si intenta detenerse_—!" Juana began.

"_Alto ahí_!" Javier shouted, interrupting Juana.

Agapito looked at Javier for a brief second before ducking behind one of the chairs in the room.

Javier shouted as he tried to make Juana release the meat cleaver,

"_Abuela, ¡deténgase_!"

The fight between Juana and Javier began and it grew more complicated by the second. For a brief second, Javier would have the upper hand but Juana would immediately make that brief second short-lived by attempting to bite or punch her "grandson".

Agapito felt fear grow inside him and it didn't feel as unpleasant like it felt when he came to life. This time, the feeling of fear felt worse and Agapito felt like the whole world, except for Javier, hated him just because of what he is. To Agapito, Javier was not only the person who drew him but as his protector and guide. As long as his master was with him, Agapito would feel safe.

Suddenly, another voice was heard and it scared Agapito even more.

**Ohhhhh, poor Greasy.**

"_Javier?! Madre? Qué está pasando? Deténgase! Basta, ustedes dos_!" The voice exclaimed.

Almost immediately after the last part of the sentence was said, the fight between Juana and Javier stopped.

Then, Agapito heard Cortez,

"Javier, can you tell me why you and your grandmother were fighting over a meat cleaver?"

"_Sí, padre_." Javier replied. "I went to town today to bring my toon weasel to life and I just brought him here just a couple of minutes ago. When I saw that my toon weasel didn't have any teeth, I told him to wait in here while I ran to my room to get some paint. When I heard Grandma screaming and throwing things, I ran out of my room and I saw her holding a meat cleaver. I tried to make her give the meat cleaver back to me but Grandma would refuse to let it go."

Then, after a pause, Agapito heard Cortez say to Juana,

"_Madre, Javier trajo un nuevo amigo durante hoy y su nuevo amigo se va a quedar con nosotros_."

"_Esa rata se quedará con nosotros?! ¿Por qué ?! Él va a robar mis cosas_!"Juana replied.

"_Abuela, él no es una rata_." Javier explained as Agapito slowly peeked out from behind the chair. "_Él es una comadreja toon y me lo trajo a la vida y que no tiene un lugar donde vivir. Él tiene que vivir aquí_."

Juana looked at Agapito and gave him a cold and angry stare. The stare scared Agapito and he almost immediately hid behind the chair.

Then, Agapito heard Javier say,

"_Eso es simplemente genial, abuela. ¿Tienes miedo de él tan malo que tiene miedo a salir de detrás de la silla_. _¿Puedes por favor tratar de sentar la cabeza y tratar de ser amable con mi toon comadreja?_"

After a brief pause, Agapito heard footsteps that grew louder and louder by the second. He looked up and saw Javier standing over him.


	24. Chapter 24: Water Soup

**Chapter Twenty Four**

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

Cortez watched Javier trying to convince Agapito to come out from behind the small red couch chair with shock, which was really odd for him. He's an individual who can draw Toons on some occasions and sometimes he's given an opportunity to watch Toons come to life. But seeing a toon weasel in his house was just…too bizarre to happen. Cortez NEVER had a live Toon in his house before! Just watching Javier trying to convince a Toon to come out from behind the couch chair made him feel…confused. He had the urge to ask Javier if he knew what he was doing.

"Javier, do you need any help?" Cortez asked. "I heard that Toons can be tricky and maybe stubborn after coming to life."

"No, it's okay." Javier replied. "I got it."

"Are you sure that you know what you're doing?"

"Yes…I think so."

Cortez didn't like the sound of that reply but he let Javier continue to convince his toon weasel to come out from hiding.

Agapito held on to the arm of the couch chair in fear. Plus, the way that Javier was standing made Agapito feel very conflicted. He wasn't sure if he should stop hiding behind the couch chair or stay hidden until Javier made a less threatening approach.

Javier backed away from the couch chair a little bit and went down on his knees. Then, he crawled back to the couch chair and said to Agapito,

"Come on out. It's okay. Come on."

Agapito looked at Javier with his fear slowly fading away. When he noticed that his master's right hand was reaching out to him, Agapito inched his hand toward his master's hand with caution. Finally, Agapito grabbed Javier's hand and allowed his master to pull him back on his feet.

"Are you okay?" Javier asked.

Agapito nodded his head.

"I'm really sorry that my grandmother scared you." Javier said. "She kind of acts a little funny around strangers…"

Just as he was about to continue, Javier stopped talking and looked at Cortez and Juana.

He cleared his throat.

"I would like to introduce you to my family." Javier said to Agapito as he led him to Cortez and Juana.

Agapito looked at Juana.

She gave him a look that made him very uncomfortable. Fortunately for Agapito, Javier was there to make sure that Juana wouldn't try to attack him again. Despite of that positive thought, Agapito still felt scared and threatened.

"Father, Grandma, this is Agapito." Javier said. "I brought him to life today and I thought that I would bring him here. So far, Agapito displayed some signs of acting like a little kid but he's pretty quick on adjusting with his _alrededores_."

Cortez looked at Agapito and he looked at Javier.

After a quick pause, he asked,

"So, he's quick on adjusting with his surroundings, huh?"

Javier nodded.

"Agapito is quick on that but he's still trying to understand everything around him." He explained. "On our way home, one _oficial de policía _called him a thing and he threatened us all because of Agapito being curious about the things he was looking at."

"Did he really?" Cortez exclaimed.

Javier nodded.

Cortez looked at Agapito and said to him,

"Now I hope that you're listening because this is really important. There are some people who treat people like me and Javier horribly and sometimes police officers, like the one that you ran into earlier, can be like that, too. If you try to stay out of trouble, then you will not be bothered by the police. Do you understand?"

Agapito replied by staring blankly for a second and started mimicking the way Cortez's face looked when he was talking to him.

Cortez looked at Javier.

"Is he making fun of me?" He asked.

Javier chuckled.

"No." He replied. "Agapito is just mimicking you because he's still trying to understand conversations and _expresiones facials._"

"Can the toon weasel talk?" Cortez asked.

"Agapito can't talk but I'm working on it. I'm also thinking about adding teeth in his mouth since it'll be hard for me to understand him mouthing words without them."

"Well, you better get to work on that because dinner will be ready in a couple of hours and you will have to go to work later this evening."

"Oh, I forgot about the last part."

"Try not to forget about it the next time."

…..

***TIME SKIP***

"There. All done." Javier said after adding a tiny dot of white paint on one of Agapito's triangular teeth.

**Whoa. Greasy's teeth were white? How did they turn yellow like they are now?**

"Communication will be easy for the both of us." Javier continued. "Well, once you actually start talking, communication will be easy for us. Just keep your mouth open for a few minutes and let the paint dry a little bit."

Agapito just looked at his master with a blank look while keeping his mouth open.

Javier sighed.

"Okay. I think that after the paint in your mouth dries, I will have to show you how to respond by using your head." He said. "Then, I will teach you how to read and talk. But since I will probably be working in a little while, there will be no one here to help you how to read or talk. I guess that I will leave you some books and try to convince my grandmother to read them to you."

Agapito gave Javier a look of fright with his eyes.

"I know that my grandmother made a very bad first impression when she saw you but sometimes—*sigh*—sometimes she can be persuaded to do something."

**You think? I'm not so sure about that.**

Now I, Yen Sid, should inform you, the viewer, something about Greasy.

**Huh?**

Although Greasy couldn't talk during this part of his life, he really wanted to admit that he did not want to be near Juana. He felt threatened and scared when he was getting to know Cortez and Juana and he didn't want to be near Juana again.

**I don't think that I should blame Greasy at all in this situation. I know the feeling.**

The reason why I said that was because Greasy, during the time I was interviewing him, didn't want to admit about feeling afraid with the other Toon Patrol members listening to him telling some parts of this story.

**Hmm. Must've happened before Greasy decided to soften up after meeting me and Tommy.**

Anyway, viewer, back to the story.

**Oh, okay.**

Ten minute later, it was time for Agapito and Javier to eat.

Juana was already at the table with a bowl sitting Agapito almost immediately felt uncomfortable.

"You go ahead and sit down, Agapito." Javier whispered. "I'll fix your plate for you."

Agapito looked his master and he looked at Juana. He did not want to sit with Juana. He didn't like that idea at all.

But before he can follow his master, Javier already disappeared into the kitchen.

Agapito sighed and walked over to the table. He sat down in front of Juana and she looked at him with a look of threat. Then, she pushed the bowl towards Agapito and said,

"_Ni siquiera pienses que vas a conseguir nada especial. Lo que tienes frente a ti es lo que tienes en este momento_."

**What on Earth? What the heck is in that bowl? Is it water or something?**

According to Greasy during the interview, the bowl had a mixture of boiling hot water and a few specks of parsley leaves. That concoction, to Greasy, was called _sopa de agua, _or "water soup".

**Water soup? **

"_Eso es lo que van a comer día y noche, siempre y cuando usted vive aquí!"_ Juana exclaimed. "_Coma ahora mismo_!"

Then, she reached to her right, picked up a spoon, and threw it at Agapito.

"_COMA AHORA MISMO!" _

_**Goodness gracious!**_

Out of pure fear, Agapito picked up the spoon.

Then, Javier shouted,

"Agapito, no!"

Suddenly, Agapito dropped the spoon and it landed in the "soup"…just before Javier pushed the bowl away from the toon weasel.

"What are you doing? Who gave this to you?!" Javier exclaimed.

Agapito pointed his index finger at Juana.

"_Deja de tratar Agapito tan horriblemente! Usted no lo tratas como a eso_!" Javier exclaimed.

"_Merece que comer sopa de agua! Es un animal, no una persona como tú y yo_!" Juana exclaimed back.

"_No llame a Agapito un "eso". Eso es muy grosero_!"

Then, Cortez walked to the table and exclaimed,

"What is going on?"

"Grandma is being very mean to Agapito!" Javier exclaimed. "She's even making him eat water soup!"

Cortez looked at Juana and said,

"_Madre, tú sabes que la sopa de agua no va a hacer que cualquiera se sienta lleno. Ahora tratar Agapito con respeto y dejar de ser malos con él_."

Juana growled.

"_Esa rata no merece ser respetado o vivir como nosotros. Es un animal_!" She exclaimed.

"_Madre_," Cortez said while slowly losing his patience, "_Agapito es una comadreja. Puede que tengas razón acerca de él que es un animal, pero las criaturas como él pensar y actuar como seres humanos. Así que ser amable con Agapito_."

But that didn't make Juana stop talking back at Cortez. She continued to talk back at him. Cortez was quickly losing his patience and it really scared Agapito.

**Oh, man. This is getting ugly really fast.**

Javier knew that the argument was going to get really ugly. He picked up two plates, one for himself and one for Agapito, walked away.

Agapito did not like that. He hated to see his master leave him in a room with two angry individuals. Seeing angry individuals became one of his few terrible fears ever since he came to life.

Then, Agapito saw Javier walking toward him, which made him feel comfortable. He was relieved to see his master again.

"_¡Fuera de mi vista, que el mal y sucia criatura! ¡Aléjate de mí y de mi mesa y comer su sopa de agua_!" Juana shouted at Agapito.

Javier surprised Agapito by grabbing his wrist and led him away to the table. Agapito walked as he was being distracted by Juana and Cortez. They were arguing like siblings fighting over a bigger half of a dessert. The more walking that Agapito did, the more quiet the argument began to sound.

Agapito looked at his master and watched him open the front door, once again exposing the toon weasel to the outside world.

After closing the front door, Javier sighed and said,

"I'm sorry that you had to see and experience that. My father and grandmother have a tendency to argue over things…and sometimes…the arguments get really ugly. I thought that it would be nice if we eat out here on the front porch. I sometimes come out here to eat my dinner whenever I want to have some time to myself. I brought your plate out here so that you can have something to eat too."

The toon weasel and his master sat down on the top front porch step like they were waiting for somebody. Javier picked up a plate and placed it on his lap while Agapito did the same.

After clearing his throat, Javier said,

"You're going to like this, Agapito. My father sometimes makes this and it's really good."

**That does look really good. It looks really yummy.**

Agapito looked down at his plate and a new kind of feeling began to grow inside of him. His mouth began to water and his stomach began to ache and growl at the smell and sight of the food on his plate.

"We're having sausage stovies, marmite mushrooms, glory buns, and some baked apple halves." Javier said while handing Agapito a fork. "They're very delicious."

After grabbing the fork, Agapito watched how Javier used his fork on a piece of sausage. He carefully picked a piece of sausage and poked it with his fork, allowing the ends to sink in with the help of a gentle push. Then, Agapito brought the piece of sausage and took a bite.


	25. Chapter 25: The Power of Memory

**Chapter Twenty Five**

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

"I'm glad that you liked the sausage stovies and baked apples." Javier said to Agapito. "I think that I should show you how to make those when my father plans to make them again."

Agapito smiled…and let out a small belch…

**Whoa! That was a pretty good one.**

…which surprised him a little bit.

Javier laughed.

"Don't worry. That was just a burp." He said. "It's natural and everybody burps…even girls."

Then, Cortez shouted from the inside of the house,

"Javier! It's almost time for you to go to work! Bring in the dishes and get ready for work!"

Javier groaned and quickly picked up the plates and utensils that he and Agapito used. Then, he ran into the house, through the living room, and into the kitchen. The rushed young man placed the plates and utensils next to the sink and ran out of the kitchen without even thinking about washing them. Javier quickly ran to his room and closed the door.

Agapito stood on the front porch and waited for his master to return. After a few more seconds of waiting, he walked into the house. As he walked, Agapito looked around nervously and carefully. He didn't want to experience another interaction with Juana and get hit with something that the angry grandmother can easily reach.

The toon weasel heard footsteps running towards him. He stood still and looked to where the sound of running footsteps was coming from.

To his relief, Agapito saw Javier walking towards him…with a book as thick as a dictionary in his hand.

"Look, I wish that I can stay here with you, Agapito," Javier explained while leading the toon weasel to his room, "but I have to work. You are going to stay in my room reading this book with this record playing. I'm doing this because you really need to start talking and you are going to be famous!"

**Wait a second. Are you FORCING Greasy to speak by making him read and listen to a vinyl record? That's not going to work! You can't make someone talk that way!**

"By October the first, you will be a Disney star!" Javier exclaimed as he placed the needle on the spinning vinyl record.

**Is that why you're acting so excited, Javier? You're just forcing Greasy so that you can get the money! And…*gasp*!...Why does that remind me of the time when my mom tried to force me to join a dance team?**

As soon as Javier left the room, a song was heard playing on the vinyl record player. After a few more seconds, Agapito heard a man singing that song in Spanish and Javier ran out of the room.

The toon weasel reached his hand out like he was saying, "Wait. Don't leave me."

**Aww, Greasy. I know that feeling. That's exactly how I felt when my dad dropped me off at pre-school.**

Then, Agapito looked at the record player and sighed.

He walked over to a tall bookshelf and pulled out a book that had both English and Spanish words written in it. As he listened to the man from the record player sing louder and louder, Agapito opened the book and started reading it.

When a Toon tries out reading and writing for the first time, learning speeds vary a lot. Some Toons may not understand the words that are read or written after the first time and some Toons may learn the meaning of the words right away.

**And is Greasy a fast learner or a slow learner?**

Despite of his talking function not being fully developed, Agapito's ability to read was kind of in the middle. He knew some of the words that were in the book because he heard Javier and Cortez saying them a few minutes ago. As for the rest of the words, they looked new to Agapito. He knew that he had to learn how to pronounce, read, and write those words so that he can communicate.

Agapito's eyes began to scan the words in the book.

…..

**Third Person POV:**

***MEANWHILE AT CRESSIDA'S HOUSE***

Cressida scrolled her phone's email page up as she checked her anything new. So far, nothing new had popped up yet…Oh, wait. Something new just…No. Never mind. It was just another email from the UnderArmour Company.

"I'm going to delete that." Cressida said to herself.

She tapped on some of the tabs on her phone and deleted the email without reading it. Then, Cressida turned off her phone and plugged it in to let it charge for the night. After that, Cressida placed her phone on her night stand, slid off her bed, took out a large book, and—

Suddenly, someone knocks on her bedroom door, causing her to put the book away. After sitting back down on her bed, Cressida asked,

"Who is it?"

"It's Penny. I came to tell you that Wheezy's here."

Cressida's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yes. He's waiting in the living room." Penny replied.

"Oh, okay. Uh, tell Wheezy that I'll be coming out in just a second."

…..

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

The words in book were immediately absorbed into Agapito's brain. The things that were playing on the record player had provided some pronunciations of some of the book's words for Agapito.

Even though that the weasel was beginning to know how to speak, he still didn't feel the urge to say some words out loud. Agapito wanted other people to know that he can talk…but his ability to talk was still in the process of developing. He wanted to communicate with Javier, greet Cortez properly, and even tell Juana to stop treating him like garbage.

For now, all that Agapito had to do was listen to almost every pronunciation and figure out the speaking part later.

…..

**THIRD PERSON POV:**

While smoking on three cigarettes, Wheezy walked over to a small box full of VHS tapes and looked at what was inside of it. Some of the titles of the VHS tapes were kind of attention-grabbing…but there was one that grabbed Wheezy's attention almost immediately after looking at it.

That VHS tape was titled _Grave of the Fireflies._

Wheezy coughed at couple of times and mumbled,

"Hmm. Very interesting."

He picked up the VHS tape that almost slid out of its paper case. His eyes widened with surprise after seeing the front of the case.

Two individuals were standing underneath a pitch black airplane with a torn umbrella over their heads. Just by looking at the tall individual carrying the small individual on his back, Wheezy had a feeling that he was looking at two siblings instead of two average individuals.

"Why are the siblings standing under a—?" Wheezy asked himself and just stopped after looking at the airplane.

_Oh no. _He thought as he stared at the plane in horror.

The memories of his past were coming back to him again, making him clench his teeth again. Just like what happened during Cressida's party, Wheezy began to hear voices and sounds in his head.

In his head, he began to hear explosions, loud splashes, machine guns, tommy guns, men shouting, waves splashing, and airplanes roaring in the sky.

_"JOHNATHAN! WATCH OUT FOR THE ENEMY!"_

_ "THERE'S TOO MANY OF 'EM! THERE'S NO ESCAPE!"_

_ *BANG-BANG-BANG*! *BANG-BANG-BANG*!_

_ …_

_ *BOOM*!_

_ …_

_ "MAYDAY, MAYDAY! THE _SHAMROCK_'S BEEN HIT! I REPEAT, THE _SHAMROCK'_S BEEN HIT!"_

_ …_

_ "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

_ …_

_ "JOHNATHAN! NOOOOOOOO!"_

_ …_

_ "GET AWAY FROM ME…AND MY HOME! IF I SEE YOU AGAIN, I'LL BEAT THE INK OUT OF YOU!"_

_ "AHHHHHHHH…!"_

"Hi, Wheezy."

Immediately after hearing a gentle voice, Wheezy snapped back to reality and looked at where the voice was coming from.

Cressida was standing behind the couch while wearing a lavender sports tank top and black pajama pants. Her eyes were partially displaying concern while Wheezy looked back at her.

As if he realized that he was in a trance, Wheezy snapped back to reality and said,

"Hey, Cressida."

"Is everything all right?" Cressida asked as she walked around the couch.

"*cough, cough*! Yeah. Everything's fine. I just…wasn't acting like myself, that's all. I'm fine now."

"Oh, okay."

Then, Cressida noticed the _Grave of the Fireflies _tape in Wheezy's right hand after sitting down on the couch.

"_Grave of the Fireflies_, huh?" She asked. "What a very interesting movie choice, Wheezy."

"Huh?" Wheezy asked and then looked at the tape. "Oh! Uh, sorry. *cough, cough, cough*! I just—*cough*!—looking at this…thing while I was waiting for you in here. The title caught my attention and I just wanted to see what that was about."

As he put the tape back where he found it, Cressida explained,

"That movie is about two siblings in Japan who try to survive during the final months of World War II after their mother dies during an air raid."

Wheezy looked up at the wall in front of him, blinked twice in surprise, and said,

"An air raid? I was in an air raid once."

"Really?"

"*cough*! Yeah."

As Wheezy walked over to where Cressida was sitting, Cressida asked,

"What was it like to be in an air raid?"

Wheezy sat down next to Cressida and exhaled, letting a small but thick cloud of smoke slip out of his mouth before fading away into nothing.

Then, without trying to trigger more memories, Wheezy replied,

"It's really crazy and scary—*cough*!—at the same time. So many things would happen all at once when something happens."

"Wow."

"I wish that I can reveal a little more about air raids…but there are some things that I don't want to bring up and I don't—*cough, cough, cough*!—want to act like what had happened at your party."

"It's okay if you don't want to talk any more about the air raids, Wheezy. I'm not going to make you."

Wheezy smiled.

"Thank you." He said in a raspy voice.

"No problem at all." Cressida replied.

Then, Wheezy inhaled on his cigarettes, paused for a second, and blew out a small puffy cloud of smoke. He watch it float away from him and Cressida for a brief second before turning his head back to her.

"I would like to mention that—*cough, cough, cough*!—I didn't come here to talk about air raids and movies." He said. "I just thought about coming here and see how you are doing right now."

"Well, Wheezy," Cressida began, "I'm doing great. I'm just getting used to the summer break."

"That's good."

"How about you?"

"It's kind of the same for me."

"Hmm." Cressida replied as she nodded her head.

Wheezy looked at Cressida's head and noticed that only a little bit of her hair was growing back.

"Are you thinking about growing your hair back out?" He asked.

"I'm thinking about it." Cressida replied. "I can't really decide whether I should grow my hair back or just shave my hair off. I don't know. What do you think, Wheezy? Should I grow my hair back or no?"

Uh oh.

This is a moment that Wheezy had a funny feeling about for a while. He knew that there might be a day when Cressida was going to ask him a question like this. But asking him on this night? That was too unexpected. Greasy can easily handle something like this but…how, he thought, can he do that without ticking a woman off? He had no idea. Greasy had more experience and made loving a woman look too easy, thanks to how long he's been hanging out with Beatrice.

Well, if he can remember clearly, Wheezy knew that women can be pretty sensitive about some things, even when it comes to their beauty and the truth. He knew because Greasy used to focus on a woman's body instead of her feelings before he met Beatrice.

Wheezy also knew that lying about what you say, do, or think isn't the way to go either. Women prefer the truth and—

Why the heck is he thinking about all of this? He is thinking too much and is leaving Cressida to wait for his answer.

_Well, _Wheezy thought, _I guess that I should be honest with her…even if Cressida might not pick a good choice almost immediately after I give her my answer._

"You look pretty either way, Cressida." He said. "With or without hair, you still look pretty."

Then, Wheezy widened his eyes in shock and slapped a hand over his mouth.

He…ACTUALLY said it.

He looked away from Cressida in embarrassment.

Was he too honest? Did he mess up?

He had no idea.

"Really, Wheezy?" Cressida asked. "Do you really think so?"

Wheezy slowly uncovered his mouth.

"I truly—*cough*!—do." He replied nervously.

"Aw, Wheezy, don't sound ashamed." Cressida said. "You didn't mess up. What you just said was really nice."

Wheezy looked at Cressida and explained,

"I'm really sorry…but I've never really talked to a girl like this before. I'm really nervous about this. I might—*cough, cough*! *gasssssp*! *cough, cough, cough, cough*!—apologize a lot."

"You don't need to worry, Wheezy." Cressida said as she placed a hand on Wheezy's shoulder. "As long as you're honest with me, then you really have nothing to worry about."

"You sure?"

Cressida nodded.

"Okay. I'll just…try not to worry about anything." Wheezy said.

Then, just as Cressida was about to say something, Penny walked in the living room and said,

"Cressida, where do you keep your spare phone chargers?"

Cressida looked at Penny and replied,

"I keep my spare phone chargers in my lower right desk drawer."

"But I looked in there and I still couldn't find one."

Cressida sighed.

"Can you hold on just a second?" She asked Wheezy.

"I'll wait. I have all night." He replied.

…

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

For the next several hours, Agapito read every book that was available while listening to the same record over and over and over. His ability to understand words increased word by word but his ability to pronounce them still didn't develop.

**I'm sure that Greasy will start talking once he and Javier go to the auditions. Right? I mean, sometimes greater confidence doesn't come to an individual until they're actually do something at a certain place. At least…at least that sort of thing happens in the movies.**

Agapito felt worn out. He didn't know what to do. Should he find another way to communicate or stay silent?

He had no idea.

Suddenly, the door swung open, surprising Agapito.

But to his relief, it was Javier.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this, Agapito," Javier said while trying to catch his breath, "but I have some wonderful news. I just got a script from some man who is managing the auditions for toon weasels. I want you to look at this part that's underlined. It's that one line."

After Javier handed him the script, Agapito looked at that one underlined part. The part was only three words long.

**Whoa. That's a really short part.**

"All you have to say is 'Who goes there'." Javier said. "'Who goes there' and that's it. I have a feeling that you're going to be famous after the audition!"


	26. Chapter 26: Good News, Bad News

**Chapter Twenty Six**

**(Hey, y'all! **

**I'm sorry that it took so long for me to publish this chapter.**

**So many things have been happening and I got way too occupied with so much stuff that I got distracted. **

**I am going to do my best to update this story whenever the opportunity is given to me.**

**Hope that y'all enjoy this story!**

**-imaginarytoon1)**

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

By the time it was eleven thirty in the evening, Javier was asleep.

Agapito, on the other hand, was still awake.

So many things were on his mind.

The small part was on his mind but going to sleep was the main thing that he was thinking about. Agapito knew what sleeping was because Javier explained it to him at some point while he was getting ready to go to sleep.

**Hmm.**

"Sleeping," Javier said earlier, "is not like how I am right now. I am awake and when you're awake, you're moving around. You talk, you laugh, you cry, you walk, you run, you jump, you…do a lot of other things. Sleeping, on the other hand, is the opposite. You don't move around as much and your eyes are closed. You don't laugh, smile, talk, or anything like that when you're asleep. When you sleep, you are slowly refreshing yourself when you sleep. 'Refresh' means that you are giving yourself some time to rest."

**There is another definition for that…but keep going.**

Well, unfortunately for Agapito, he had been alive for a few hours so sleep was fairly new to him. He tried closing his eyes for five minutes (because that's how long it took for Javier to fall asleep) but nothing happened. Since he couldn't fall asleep, he spent the night reading his scripted part and a thick translating dictionary.

Reading the words from the dictionary was like a bowl of alphabet soup to Agapito's mind. One by one, word by word, English to Spanish, and Spanish to English, Agapito absorbed the words and meanings like a sponge soaking up water. After every four words, the quiet weasel would feel like he was experiencing a headache with no pain.

**Heh, heh, heh. A lot of people would feel that when they're studying or reading really hard. I felt that feeling when I started reading books for the first time in my life.**

When it was three o'clock in the morning—

**Oh, my.**

—Agapito finally fell asleep.

**Do Toons dream after their first day of being alive?**

Unlike humans and Toons who have been alive for a while, Agapito didn't dream that night. Because of him being alive for a short period of time, Agapito couldn't dream due to his mind not being fully developed yet. On that night, all that occupied the toon weasel's mind was a type of pitch black darkness that somehow provided him sleep, relaxation, and moderate comfort.

**Oh, so it's like one of those times when someone falls asleep but they don't remember doing that until they wake up. Right?**

**...**

**And why on Earth is there a movie playing loudly in the living room? **

….

**Beatrice:**

I stopped the movie projector and walked back to where I came in.

"Could it be possible that Dad is taking a break from his writing and decided to watch a movie?" I mumbled to myself. "But then again, when was the last time Dad watched a movie with the volume turned up too loudly?"

Using my telekinesis, I opened the attic door and unfolded the ladder. I, then, began to use telekinetic flight to exit the attic. When my feet were really close to the floor, I used my power to fold the attic ladder back up and close the door quietly.

After I allowed myself to stand on the floor, I quietly walked to the living room as the volume grew louder and louder after every step. I even recognized what was playing on the living room television. It's a movie that I haven't watched in a while…and never plan on watching again…even if it was the last movie on Earth.__

__It's Stephen King's _Children of the Corn._

Now why did Dad choose to watch that movie…out of all of the movies that we have in the living room?

"Duh, Psycho, why did you pick this movie?"

Psycho and Stupid are in the house? Why are they here? To visit me and Tommy? To watch a movie that they have never seen before?

"I thought that it was about children dancing in a cornfield." Psycho whimpered.

I snorted and quickly covered my nose and mouth with my hands to prevent myself from laughing out loud.

_That's not what _Children of the Corn _is about! _I thought.

Fortunately, Psycho and Stupid didn't hear me laughing. Unfortunately, Dad's fully aware of the movie playing in the living room with a very high volume.

"TOMMY!" I heard my dad exclaim. "BEATRICE! Either one of you, please turn down the volume or turn off the TV!"

Knowing that my dad cannot see, hear, and communicate with Toons like me and Tommy, I had to be the one to control the TV volume…and choice of movie. With the help of my telekinesis, I allowed myself to float towards the living room ceiling like the gravity was acting up. As this was happening, Psycho and Stupid didn't even turn their heads or even sensed my presence. When my head touched the ceiling, I allowed myself to pin my back, legs, arms, and hands on it, making myself feel like a spy on a secret mission. Then, I aimed my eyes at the TV remote and used my telekinesis to press the MUTE button.

That action caused Psycho and Stupid to jump with surprise.

"Duh, what just happened to the TV?!" Stupid exclaimed.

"I don't know!" Psycho replied.

Then, I used my power to eject the movie out of VHS tape slot (Yes, our movie player is a combination of a VHS and DVD player.) and slid it back into its case.

"THIS HOUSE IS HAUNTED!" Psycho exclaimed and started to bounce off the walls (not literally).

His sudden exclamation almost made me drop down from the ceiling. Thankfully, because of the greater amount of practice of my powers, I kept myself pinned on the ceiling.

Then, a silly idea popped into my head.

"Lower your voice and calm yourself, little weasel." I said in my best ghostly voice.

Stupid gasped and Psycho dropped down to the couch in shock.

"Did you hear that, Psycho?" Stupid asked.

"It's a ghost." Psycho replied in whispered.

"Listen up, you two." I continued in my ghostly voice. "There are people in this house who wish to have a quiet evening. Please pick a movie with less screaming and horror."

"BUT WHAT MOVIE SHOULD WE WATCH?" Psycho and Stupid asked in unison.

I chuckled quietly.

"Watch _The Wizard of Oz_." I then replied. "And watch it with the TV on a low volume. Can you two be good for me and the others in this house by doing those two things?"

"Duh, yes." Stupid said.

"Any-Any-Anything else?" Psycho asked nervously.

"While you're moving, grab me a bag of ranch-flavored rice cakes…and a great big bottle of Dr. Pepper." I said, really enjoying everything that I'm doing.

That's when Stupid finally noticed me.

"Duh, what are you doing up there, Beatrice?" He asked.

I laughed and peeled myself off the ceiling.

"Just testing out my powers." I replied as I made my way down to the floor. "I was even just teasing you and Psycho about the whole ghost thing."

"Really?" Psycho asked.

"Really."

He sighed with relief.

"Did Greasy tell you anything?" Stupid asked.

"About what?" I asked back.

"About…something…that I can't…remember."

Then, Stupid made a face and…started to think really hard…which eventually led him to just…stare out into space.

That was when Psycho spoke up.

"Greasy told me to tell you something, Pretty Girly." He said. "He gave me a sheet of paper to help me remember."

Then, Psycho reached into the collar of his straightjacket and took out a crumbled up sheet of paper. He handed it to me after he unwrinkled it a little bit. After I grabbed the sheet of paper, I unwrinkled it, flattened it, and read it.

The sheet of paper said,

**Hello, Beatrice.**

**I hope that you are having a wonderful evening because I have something great to tell you. **

Oh, really? I wonder what that could be.

**Some Toons invited everyone in the Toon Patrol to this place in Toon Town where Toons talk and dance. That place is called 'The Jitterbug' and it's a pretty popular dance club in Toon Town. Wheezy is thinking about inviting Cressida so that, if you would like to join us, you wouldn't be the only girl in the group. Your brother, Tommy, can join us if he's not too busy.**

**Our group is supposed to go The Jitterbug on Friday around 7:30 PM. **

**If you plan to come, please bring seventy-five cents. **

**I wish that I could tell you everything in person but Smarty and I are currently stuck with some unfinished paper. Once I have the time, I will come by your house and we can talk.**

**Take your time to think and give me a response.**

_**¡Buenas noches!**_

**-GREASY**

Oh, my goodness. Greasy is inviting me to a dance club.

This is actually the first time a boy invited me to a dance.

…I'm not going to make my decision right now. I have to watch a little bit more of Greasy's memories tonight and think about the invitation.

The question is, how am I going to watch Greasy's memories tonight without Psycho and/or Stupid finding out?

I folded up the paper and looked at Psycho.

"Do you know when Greasy is going to come over here?" I asked him.

"Tomorrow morning, Pretty Girly." Psycho replied and giggled.

_Oh, good. _I thought. _That'll give me enough time to think about Greasy's invitation._

"Okay, Psycho." I replied. "You and Stupid tell Greasy that I'm going to think about his invitation tonight and give him my decision in the morning. Can you two do that for me?"

"Duh, sure, Beatrice!" Stupid replied.

"Yeah!" Psycho exclaimed happily.

"Thanks, you two." I said. "Well, I better get ready for bed. I think that it's time for you two to do the same."

"Aw, you're right." Stupid said with a little bit of sadness in his voice.

"That's true." Psycho added.

"Don't sound sad, you guys." I said. "Y'all are always welcome to come back here. Despite of that, it's very important for all of us to get enough sleep that we can be refreshed for the next day."

Psycho nodded his head in agreement.

"Okay, Beatrice." Stupid replied.

"Thank you." I said. "Good night, you two."

Psycho giggled.

"Good night, Pretty Girly!" He replied.

"Duh, yeah, good night!" Stupid added.

"See you tomorrow!" The two weasels said almost in unison.

I chuckled and replied,

"Same here."

Then, I walked out of the living room…like I was walking my way towards my bedroom. After walking away from the living room entrance, I looked behind me to see if the coast was clear. To my relief, I watched Psycho and Stupid walking to the front door without noticing me. I immediately used my telekinetic power to lift myself up to the attic door.

_Thank goodness that Stupid and Psycho are not following me right now. _I thought as I quickly and quietly opened the attic door.

Almost like a snake, I slithered into the attic when there was enough space between the attic and the door. As soon as my body touched the floor of the attic, I telekinetically pulled the door closed like it had an invisible string.

"There we go." I said to myself out loud.

I got back on my feet and walked over to the movie projector…before playing it to where I left off earlier.

….

**YEN SID'S NARRATION VOICE:**

"Agapito!"

The sleepy toon weasel slowly came back to reality after spending some time succumbing to relaxation.

"Agapito, wake up!"

After hearing Javier talking to him, Agapito opened his eyes and looked at his creator in confusion.

"I'm sorry to wake you up like this but we have to get you to the auditions!" Javier exclaimed. "If we don't make it on time, then some toon weasel is going to take your place in the Disney movie!"

Agapito sat up and watched his creator run out of the room. Then, a few seconds later, Javier came back with a comb in his hands, surprising the toon weasel as soon as the teeth came in contact with his greasy hair.

**Wow. Javier's really in a rush.**

A couple of minutes later, Agapito was flapping in the wind like the American flag on a windy day, due to Javier grabbing his hand and running down the street at a fast pace. Along the way, Agapito would watch his creator almost run into somebody.

"Sorry!" Javier would exclaim. "Pardon us! Excuse me!"

**Wouldn't it be easier for Javier to just take the Red Car? That way, he wouldn't run into anybody. But…then again, the 1940s was another time of discrimination…for both Toons and humans.**

The people who were passing by gave the Toon and human their own reactions. Some of them looked surprised and some were giving Javier and Agapito looks that were practically saying, "Watch where you're going, you two!" But because of being in a rush, Javier's attention wasn't focused on the people who were passing by him and Agapito. He was too focused on getting his toon weasel to the audition for _The Wind in the Willows. _In fact, Javier was so focused on the audition that he didn't even notice that he stepped on a piece of gum that was stuck to the sidewalk.

He was really that focused on showing up to the audition on time.

**A lot of people are like that when they're focused on just one thing instead the world around them.**

Javier gasped in surprise when he saw what he had been focusing on since Agapito's creation.

"That's it!" He exclaimed. "_Oh Dios mío_, we're right on time, Agapito!"

It was a small building with a big sign on the wall. The sign had **TBH RADIO STATION **painted on it with a bunch of tiny words at the bottom of the bold letters. The big rectangular window on the left side of the sign had a sheet of paper taped onto it. On that sheet of paper, it had **TOON WEASEL AUDITIONS: OCTOBER 3****rd****, 8 AM-5 PM! ALL WEASELS MUST HAVE THEIR LINES MEMORIZED! **in bold letters.

"Thank goodness that it's seven-fifteen in the morning, Agapito!" Javier exclaimed with excitement. "We're the first ones to show up and the audition should be as simple as one, two, three for you!"

**I thought that he was going to show up at a much earlier time. I have actually known some people who would actually camp out at a certain place so that they wouldn't have to worry about waiting too long in a line.**

Javier stopped running and allowed Agapito to finally stand on the sidewalk of the radio station. Unfortunately, because of how long he was left in the air, Agapito felt his legs wobble like his leg muscles were replaced with spaghetti.

**Try shaking them a little bit, Greasy. Sometimes that helps with the wobbly feeling.**

Javier took out the same comb that he used earlier and combed Agapito's hair again, smoothing it out.

"You're going to do great, Agapito." He said. "All that you have to do is say your line as soon as you step into the building. Just say your line and you're done. _Buena suerte mi amigo_."

When the toon weasel's hair looked smooth enough to his creator, Javier grabbed Agapito's hand and they both walked towards the entrance of the building. **Whoa! Where did the man with the thin black mustache come from?**

The human and his toon weasel didn't walk more than six steps when a man with a thin black mustache took the audition notice sign off the window. Then, the man walked out of the building and towards Agapito and Javier.

"Can I help you two with something?" He asked as the duo stopped walking.

"We're here for the auditions." Javier replied. "I brought my toon weasel with me and he's ready to audition for you…if you're the one in charge of the auditioning."

**Or you're forcing him to audition so that you can get some money just for showing up.**

"Young man, I'm afraid that I have some bad news." The man said. "I hate to say this that the auditions are no longer taking place here."

**HUH?!**

"What?!" Javier exclaimed as Agapito looked up at him with confusion and surprise. "_¡¿Como puede ser?! _The sign said that—"

"Yes but because of the war," The man began to explain, "Mr. Disney himself had to stop the production for _The Wind in the Willows. _Since that's happening, the auditions for toon weasels parts are put on hold until further notice."

**That was one of the common things to do during the times of World War II. **

"But why today?" Javier exclaimed again. "I remembered the date and made sure that my weasel memorized his lines…"

**Or "that one line", you moron. **

"Well, I'm sorry, young man. You have to understand that in desperate times, some desperate acts have to happen. Your weasel is not going to audition today and that's final."

**Ouch.**


End file.
